Updates

On April 5, 3M filed a motion that would immediately require all claims in the Combat Arms Earplugs Version 2 (CAEv2) administrative docket to adhere to standard requirements for all federal lawsuits. The motion, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, seeks to address the unconventional administrative docket of unvetted claims in this multi-district litigation (MDL) that eliminated standard requirements, such as the filing fee.

Unlike all other federal court filings, the Court in the CAEv2 MDL created an unconventional administrative docket for CAEv2 claims that eliminated the filing fee and other standard requirements. As a result, plaintiffs’ lawyers did not need to determine whether a case had merit before filing a claim, significantly increasing the number of cases from 2,700 to 265,000. This rapid increase caught the eye of U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts in his 2021 annual report on the Federal Judiciary, noting “the unusually large number of filings” in this MDL.

The Court has recently begun a process to dismantle the administrative docket but, as of April 2022, 180,000 claimants still have not completed standard steps that prevent unvetted, frivolous lawsuits from being brought to court. 3M, in its motion, urges the Court to remedy this situation.

You can read 3M’s motion here.