3M has lost 10 of 16 of the ear plug cases, with the average claimant being awarded $26 million thus far. It is estimated that the remaining 260,000 claims will be settled for between $40k and $500k. So on the low end the company will be paying out $10 billion? The judge hasn’t ruled whether bankruptcy can apply in this case, but if they rule against 3M, it’s over. The brilliant legal minds that 3M hired to negotiate with claimants, at probably $1,000 an hour, decided to stupidly play hardball with veterans and has now put the company future in jeopardy. They should have settled a long time ago. American juries aren’t too keen on veterans getting screwed by big companies. But this is 3M leadership, one giant dumpster fire.
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Per Bloomberg, the company spent >$450 million on lawyers as of January, 2023. Probably some more recent figures out there somewhere but that is what I found.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-01-06/3m-spends-more-than-450-million-in-legal-costs-on-earplug-cases
What’s the timeline for the remaining cases?
I read a really interesting article on this from a lawyer (forget the link), but he talked about how the strategy of these large lawsuits go. They front load them with the worst and most clear cut cases to set a precedence going forward for future cases.
@I told you so; I'd love to see you say this to the face of a veteran. Keyboard warrior, indeed.
Ugh here come the keyboard earplug warriors again. I thought y’all got bored. We’re busy with our own problems. Go away.
3M tried to apply their same bullying tactics with the military. Big miscalculation. The U.S. military will put a boot up their Ga$s - it's the American way.