3M Combat Arms Earplug Lawsuit: Where the $6B Settlement Stands

A product defect that a competitor first exposed through a fraud lawsuit against the government, not an injury lawsuit, grew into the largest mass tort litigation in American history by case count — and along the way, produced one of the clearest illustrations anywhere of why a single bellwether verdict never tells you what your own claim is worth.

Quick answer: Lawsuits alleged 3M’s Combat Arms Earplugs Version 2, supplied to the U.S. military, had a design defect that let them loosen without the wearer noticing, and that 3M and its subsidiary Aearo Technologies knew about it since 2000 without disclosing it. The litigation began as a 2016 False Claims Act whistleblower suit (settled for $9.1 million in 2018), then grew into MDL No. 2885 — the largest mass tort in U.S. history by case volume. Bellwether trials from 2021-2022 produced wildly inconsistent results, from a complete defense win to a $77.5 million verdict. After Aearo’s own 2022 bankruptcy filing was dismissed as “fatally premature” in 2023, 3M announced a $6.01 billion global settlement. As of mid-2026, more than half that total has been paid out, though new claim registration has been closed since 2023-2024.

What the Earplugs Allegedly Got Wrong

The Combat Arms Earplug Version 2 (CAEv2) was a dual-ended earplug issued to U.S. service members — one end providing a stronger seal for high-noise environments like weapons fire, the other, “olive,” end designed for a lighter seal allowing situational awareness. Lawsuits alleged the earplug’s stem was too short for the olive end to seat and seal properly in some users’ ear canals. The defect was subtle by design failure standards: the earplug could imperceptibly loosen during wear, letting in damaging noise levels without any obvious signal to the wearer that hearing protection had failed. Court filings allege 3M and Aearo Technologies — the earplug’s original manufacturer, acquired by 3M in 2008 — knew of this defect as early as 2000 and did not disclose it to the military.

It Started as a Fraud Case, Not an Injury Case

Before a single service member sued over hearing loss, a competitor did something else entirely. In 2016, Moldex-Metric, a rival hearing-protection manufacturer, filed a False Claims Act whistleblower (qui tam) lawsuit alleging 3M and Aearo had defrauded the federal government by selling the military earplugs they knew were defective. In 2018, 3M paid $9.1 million to resolve that case — without admitting liability, and with Moldex-Metric receiving a $1.9 million relator’s share. That settlement, and the underlying evidence behind it, became significant background material once individual service members began filing their own personal injury lawsuits shortly afterward.

The Largest MDL in U.S. History

Those individual lawsuits were consolidated as MDL No. 2885, In re: 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation, before U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers in the Northern District of Florida (Pensacola). At its peak, the docket held more than 280,000 pending claims — making it, by case volume, the largest multidistrict litigation in U.S. history, well beyond any other mass tort covered on this site.

Bellwether Trials: A Textbook Case of Inconsistent Results

Between March 2021 and May 2022, the court held 16 separate jury trials involving 19 plaintiffs — and the results are one of the clearest illustrations anywhere of why our explainer on how mass tort litigation actually works warns against reading any single bellwether verdict as a preview of what your own case is worth:

• First bellwether (April 2021) — a combined $7.1 million verdict for three plaintiffs.
• Second bellwether (May 2021) — a complete defense verdict for 3M.
• Third bellwether (June 2021) — $1.7 million for a plaintiff whose tinnitus was aggravated during training.
• December 2021 — a $22.5 million verdict, including $15 million in punitive damages, alongside a separate defense verdict in another case tried the same month.
• March 2022 — a $50 million verdict for one veteran, and an $8 million verdict for another plaintiff, in separate trials.
• April 2022 — a $2.2 million verdict.
• Final bellwether (May 2022) — a $77.5 million verdict, including $72.5 million in punitive damages, for U.S. Army veteran James Beal.

Across all sixteen trials, roughly nine ended in a plaintiff verdict and six in a defense verdict for 3M. No individual result — not the $77.5 million headline, not the outright defense wins — told either side, or any individual claimant, what a typical case was actually worth. It’s the overall pattern across dozens of trials, not any single one, that ultimately pushed both sides toward a global resolution.

Another Bankruptcy Attempt, Another Rejection

As the bellwether losses mounted, 3M turned to a maneuver that should look familiar from elsewhere on this site: in July 2022, Aearo Technologies — the 3M subsidiary that had manufactured the earplugs — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the Southern District of Indiana, attempting to extend the bankruptcy’s automatic stay to pause the personal injury litigation against 3M itself, even though 3M never filed for bankruptcy. It’s the same underlying strategy behind the “Texas Two-Step” our guide to the talcum powder litigation describes in detail, and behind the release the Supreme Court struck down in Purdue Pharma’s opioid bankruptcy — a healthy, non-bankrupt company trying to route mass tort liability through a subsidiary’s bankruptcy filing instead of the ordinary tort system.

It failed just as those other attempts did, and faster than most: U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jeffrey J. Graham dismissed Aearo’s case on June 9, 2023, calling the filing “fatally premature” and finding it served no “valid reorganization purpose,” since Aearo was not actually facing the kind of financial distress bankruptcy is meant to address. Two months later, on August 29, 2023, 3M announced the $6.01 billion global settlement that actually resolved the litigation.

The Settlement: Two Payment Tracks

The settlement pays claimants through two distinct programs, rather than one uniform formula:

• The Expedited Pay Program (EPP) — a faster, more standardized payment for claimants meeting simpler qualifying criteria. As of mid-2026, more than 231,000 claimants enrolled in this program, and roughly 99% of them have already been paid.
• The Deferred Pay Full Evaluation Program — a more individualized track using a point-based formula tied to the severity of a claimant’s hearing loss or tinnitus and the strength of their supporting medical and audiological documentation, with payments made over a longer, multi-year schedule running through the settlement’s full term.

3M has not publicly disclosed the exact point-value formula behind the Deferred Pay track. Various law firm websites publish specific estimated dollar ranges by injury category — treat any such figure as an outside estimate rather than a confirmed settlement term, exactly the caution our guide to filing a claim in a class action or mass tort settlement recommends generally.

As of mid-2026, more than $3 billion of the total $6.01 billion has actually been disbursed across both programs — a genuinely substantial share, though a reminder that “settlement announced” in August 2023 and “fully paid out” remain two different facts even three years later.

Can You Still File?

Registration for this settlement effectively closed in 2023 and early 2024. If you were exposed to CAEv2 earplugs during military service and never registered a claim by then, this specific settlement fund is very likely no longer open to you. Narrow late-claim provisions may exist depending on individual circumstances, and depending on your state’s statute of limitations and exactly when you discovered the connection between your hearing loss and the earplugs, a separate, individual lawsuit outside the settled MDL could theoretically still be viable — but that is a fact-specific question for the settlement’s claims administrator or an attorney to evaluate directly, similar to the closed-window situations our guides to the Camp Lejeune water contamination claims and Purdue Pharma opioid settlement describe.

Not the Same as Your VA Disability Claim

Because nearly every claimant in this litigation is a current or former service member, one distinction is worth stating plainly: this lawsuit and settlement are entirely separate from a VA disability claim for hearing loss or tinnitus. The VA evaluates disability benefits under its own rating criteria, against the federal government, on its own timeline. Pursuing or already receiving VA disability compensation does not disqualify you from this settlement, and receiving a settlement payment does not automatically affect VA benefits already awarded — though how a lump-sum settlement payment might interact with any separate, means-tested benefit is worth confirming specifically rather than assuming either way.

Evidence That Matters

• Military records documenting your service dates, unit, and role, particularly anything connecting you to high-noise environments (weapons ranges, artillery, aircraft) where CAEv2 earplugs were issued and used
• Audiological records and hearing test results, ideally showing hearing status over time rather than a single point
• Any VA disability rating decision or documentation related to hearing loss or tinnitus, which can support — though is legally separate from — this claim
• Records of when and how you connected your hearing loss to the earplugs, relevant to any statute-of-limitations question for a claim outside the settled MDL

Practical Steps

1. If you already registered a claim, confirm your specific program (Expedited Pay or Deferred Pay) and payment status directly with the settlement’s claims administrator.
2. Gather your military service records and any hearing-related medical or VA documentation if you haven’t already, regardless of which program applies to you.
3. Don’t assume a settlement payment affects your VA disability benefits, or vice versa — these are legally separate systems, but confirm the specific interaction with a knowledgeable source rather than guessing.
4. If you never registered and believe you were exposed, contact an attorney immediately to evaluate whether any late-claim provision or separate individual lawsuit might still be available, rather than assuming the door is fully closed without checking.
5. Treat any specific dollar-figure “average payout” you see online with skepticism — the Deferred Pay Full Evaluation Program’s exact point formula has not been publicly disclosed by 3M.

Sources & Further Reading

• U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida — docket for MDL No. 2885, In re: 3M Combat Arms Earplug Products Liability Litigation, before Judge M. Casey Rodgers
• U.S. Department of Justice press release on the 2018 $9.1 million False Claims Act settlement resolving United States ex rel. Moldex-Metric, Inc. v. 3M Co.
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Indiana — order dismissing In re: Aearo Technologies LLC, June 9, 2023
• 3M public disclosures on the $6.01 billion global settlement announced August 29, 2023, and subsequent payment-status reporting
• See our guides to how mass tort litigation actually works for what a bellwether trial does and doesn’t tell you, the talcum powder litigation and the Purdue Pharma opioid settlement for two other companies whose attempts to shield mass tort liability through a bankruptcy filing were also rejected, and the Camp Lejeune water contamination claims for another closed-window veteran claim with a similar lesson about confirming your options before assuming a deadline is truly final