The U.S. District Judge Casey Rodgers, presiding over the coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings of federal 3M military earplugs lawsuits, indicated that the first “bellwether” trial is scheduled for April 2021. The trial will help gauge how juries respond to certain evidence and testimony that will be repeated throughout the litigation.
According to the pretrial order issued on February 11, the initial bellwether selection process will be completed by February 25, which will result in a pool of 20 earplug cases and six alternates. The first trial will be held with Daubert and dispositive motions due in January 2021. The parties will also be allowed to brief the consolidation issue before a final decision is made.
The Combat Arms Earplugs Version 2 (CAEv2) was manufactured by Aearo Technologies, Inc. prior to being taken over by 3M in 2008. The dual-ended 3M CAEv2 combat earplugs served as a standard form of military hearing protection in foreign conflicts for more than a decade, from 2002 to 2016. The 3M military earplugs are made of green and yellow with a double-ended design. The green end is inserted in order to block all sound, and the insertion of the yellow end reduces the sound of gunfire and explosives but still allowed the service personnel to be part of a conversation. According to several lawsuits filed, the defective military earplugs cause two primary medical issues, tinnitus and hearing loss, mostly among veterans in the Navy and Air Force. The product was discontinued in 2015.
Currently, more than 2,800 product liability claims are pending in the federal court system against 3M Company consolidated under MDL No. 2885 (In Re: 3M Combat Arms Earplug Litigation) in the Northern District of Florida. Each lawsuit alleges veterans have been left with hearing loss or tinnitus due to defective earplugs distributed by the U.S. armed forces to all service members between about 2003 and 2015.
