8/3/2023 0 Comments Combat arms earplugs version 2One of the cases involved in the litigation for plaintiff David George was scheduled to begin in October 2022 but was pushed back to February 2023. The judge granted that motion but then allowed 3M to appeal it. The plaintiffs filed a motion asking the judge to decide that 3M alone (and not Aearo) is liable for the injuries from its earplugs (meaning that Aearo’s bankruptcy would not impact the case). However, 3M appealed the bankruptcy decision. Once the bankruptcy protection was denied, the judge hearing the case pushed 3M to participate in settlement talks, which began in September 2022. This was 3M’s new strategy to try to protect itself from the claims. In August 2022, the court allowed the case against 3M to continue despite the fact that the company’s subsidiary Aearo, which manufactured the earplugs, filed for bankruptcy protection. The 3M earplug MDL is the largest in US history. There have been so many lawsuits filed with similar complaints that the suits were centralized under a Florida district court as an MDL in 2019 so they could be processed more efficiently and to reduce cost and duplication. There are currently more than 230,000 military service members or veterans suing 3M. In 2018, 3M agreed to pay $9.1 million to the Department of Justice to resolve the allegations without admitting liability.Īfter the settlement with the federal government, individual service members began filing lawsuits against 3M alleging they wore the defective earplugs that caused them to develop hearing loss and/or tinnitus. The lawsuit claimed the defective earplugs were likely responsible for significant hearing loss and tinnitus (ringing or other noise in the ear) experienced by thousands of soldiers. In 2016, Moldex-Metric, Inc., a California-based competitor, filed a whistleblower lawsuit against 3M claiming that 3M had been selling defective earplugs, knowing that they did not meet the standards for protection required by the government. Production of the earplugs ceased in 2015 without recall. They were standard issue in Iraq and Afghanistan for soldiers deployed during those years. and parent 3M Company manufactured and supplied the United States military with Combat Arms earplugs to protect the service members’ ears from the loud sounds associated with military training and combat.
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