PENSACOLA, FL – Court-appointed lead plaintiffs’ counsel in the 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation (MDL No. 2885) today secured a landmark $6.01 billion settlement with 3M Company and subsidiary Aearo Technologies on behalf of current and former servicemembers and civilians who suffered hearing damage while using 3M’s Combat Arms Earplug version 2 (CAEv2) and other dual-ended non-linear earplugs.  

 

This settlement comes after more than four years of litigation against 3M, including 16 bellwether trials. The master settlement agreement covers the claims of all plaintiffs in MDL No. 2885 and Minnesota state court. The lawsuits alleged that from 1999 to 2015, 3M marketed, manufactured, and sold defective CAEv2 earplugs to the United States Military and consumers, resulting in tens of thousands of people suffering from hearing loss and tinnitus.  

 

"This historic agreement represents a tremendous victory for the thousands of men and women who bravely served our country and returned home with life-altering hearing injuries,” said plaintiffs’ lead counsel Bryan F. Aylstock of Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz, PLLC and co-lead counsel Christopher A. Seeger of Seeger Weiss LLP, along with Clayton Clark of Clark, Love & Hutson, PLLC who jointly led the negotiating team. “We are proud to have obtained this settlement, which ensures that those who suffered hearing damage will receive the justice and compensation they so rightly deserve.” 

 

Upon registration, each claimant will be given the option to enroll in a payment program based on their specific needs and proof of hearing damage. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has confirmed that no veteran will lose health or disability benefits, or have their disability rating adversely adjusted, directly as a result of participating in the settlement, and no VA facility will be able to recover or subrogate any portion of a plaintiff’s award. It is anticipated that Judge M. Casey Rodgers of the Northern District of Florida, who is overseeing the MDL, will hold a hearing on the settlement, which will have an independent administrator and be overseen by a Special Master appointed by the court. 

​

A copy of the Master Settlement Agreement can be found here.

​

###