INDIANAPOLIS (Legal Newsline) - Besieged by litigation that has already cost it multiples of the $31 million in revenue it earned selling protective earplugs to the U.S. military, 3M placed its Aearo unit in Chapter 11 bankruptcy to try to halt a legal process it described as a “a perfect storm no reasonable settlement could solve.”
PENSACOLA, Fla. (Legal Newsline) – 3M won’t get its wish to get a Department of Defense employee’s deposition as it fights hundreds of thousands of claims that the ear plugs it sold to the U.S. military caused hearing loss.
PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) – The judge overseeing more than 200,000 cases over 3M’s military ear plugs will decide whether a client-gathering website will need to turn over its records.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – In the case of Every American vs. 11 companies, defendants are hoping to stop class action lawyers from establishing “the most ambitious class imaginable.”
SAN ANTONIO (Legal Newsline) – A Florida federal judge handling ear plug litigation will be tasked with deciding if a Department of Defense employee must answer 3M’s questions.
SAN ANTONIO (Legal Newsline) – The federal government doesn’t want 3M to be able to question a Department of Defense employee as the company defends itself from thousands of lawsuits alleging the ear plugs it supplied to the military were defective.
PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) – A group that directs potential clients to mass tort lawyers – and is fighting to keep the information between them secret – will be on hand when those lawyers meet to discuss their strategies.
PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) – 3M is reiterating that a company that finds plaintiffs for class action lawyers is not entitled to attorney-client privilege, as the company attempts to figure out specifics on the many lawsuits it faces over ear plugs.
PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) – Pushed by the company it is rounding up clients to sue, a website that helps plaintiffs lawyers generate lawsuits wants to keep information about its business secret.
PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) – 3M is wondering what exactly goes on when a plaintiff-recruiting service sends clients to law firms to sue it over the ear plugs it sold to the U.S. military.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) – Lawyers will soon move ahead with plans to certify a class action lawsuit that fails to allege anyone has been made sick by chemicals known as PFAS.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Democrats in the U.S. Senate are attempting to link one of their pet projects to the COVID-19 pandemic in the days leading to a vote on a liability-expanding measure they tried to force through last year and failed.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Senators who supported legislation that would have possibly bankrupted 3M are now hoping to take over the company in order to control the distribution of its products that can help treat the coronavirus pandemic and prevent its spread.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge has not yet ruled on a motion filed in October that asks him to reconsider his decision to let continue a PFAS lawsuit that does not allege the chemicals have caused any of the diseases to which they are linked.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The EPA would have six months to declare certain chemicals as hazardous under the federal Superfund law – a measure rejected late last year by Senate Republicans – if an amendment is adopted to a bill that will be the next battleground over the regulation of PFAS.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Plaintiffs lawyers filing PFAS lawsuits are lobbying Congress as it mulls whether to designate the chemicals as hazardous under the Superfund law – a move that would give those lawyers more companies to target with litigation.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) - A federal judge in Ohio on Monday allowed a firefighter to proceed with his lawsuit against 3M, DuPont and other manufacturers of a class of chemicals known as PFAS, although the judge stopped short of transforming the case into a class action on behalf of virtually every person in the U.S., as plaintiff lawyers want.
MUSKOGEE, Okla. (Legal Newsline) – Allegations of product liability is at the core of a lawsuit filed by an oil refining company against a raft of defendants over the sale of a firefighting foam containing chemical compounds believed dangerous to health and the environment.
