Combat Arms Earplug Lawsuit: Settlement Structure, Payouts, and Status

The 3M Combat Arms Earplug lawsuit settlement is an up-to-$6 billion agreement, announced in August 2023, that resolves hearing loss and tinnitus claims brought by military veterans and servicemembers who used the dual-ended CAEv2 earplug between 1999 and 2015. The deal consists of $5 billion in cash and $1 billion in 3M stock, paid out between 2023 and 2029. As of March 2026, more than $3 billion has been distributed to claimants across several compensation tracks, and every case in the federal multidistrict litigation has been dismissed. Registration closed on January 25, 2024.¹²

How the Settlement Is Structured

Payouts flow through several tracks, and which one you fall into determines both the size of your award and when you see the money.

The Expedited Payment Program (EPP) is the largest track by headcount. It offered smaller, faster payments to claimants willing to skip a full evaluation of their injuries. Every EPP claimant has now been paid.

The Deferred Payment Program (DPP) pays larger awards using a point system. Points reflect the severity of hearing loss, whether one or both ears are affected, whether tinnitus is documented, the claimant’s age, and how strong the causal link is between earplug use and hearing damage. Each point is worth a dollar figure recalculated once a year every October from 2025 through 2029.²

The Extraordinary Injury Fund (EIF) exists for severe or life-altering injuries the standard point formula does not fully capture. Most EIF applicants have to be enrolled in the DPP, though a limited exception applies to certain EPP claimants with documented tinnitus.

A separate group of wave cases — 1,595 claimants — was paid on its own track, and the 13 bellwether verdict cases were paid directly for a combined $135 million.²

What Has Been Paid So Far

As of March 27, 2026, the settlement program has issued $3,038,484,696 in total payments. The breakdown looks like this:²

All 233,071 EPP claimants have been paid, receiving a combined $2.4 billion.
All 1,595 wave case claimants have been paid, totaling $212 million.
DPP registration payments are 93% complete.
The first round of point-based DPP awards (Cycle 1) is 99% paid.
All 531 wave-case EIF awardees have been paid a combined $15.2 million.
The larger MSA I EIF has processed 91.4% of submitted applications.

BrownGreer, the settlement data administrator, reports a total of about 271,000 claimants in the program.³

How the Point Value Works

If you are in the DPP, your final award depends on how much each point is worth in each of the five annual calculations from 2025 through 2029. The value shifts because the largest tranches of settlement money enter the pool at different times.

The first calculation happened on October 1, 2025. Preliminary projections from the settlement program estimated the initial value at roughly $370 per point. The bulk of value is projected for the October 2026 calculation, estimated at about $3,741 per point, because that is when the largest funding tranche enters the pool. If the projections hold across all five years, the cumulative value per point after 2029 would be around $5,375. These are projections, and the actual figures depend on total points assigned and deductions from the fund.⁴

Who Qualified, and Why Registration Is Closed

To register, claimants had to show they used the CAEv2 sometime between 1999 and 2015, demonstrate through before-and-after audiograms that their hearing worsened during the period of use, agree to release their legal claims and dismiss any pending lawsuit, and meet the registration deadline. That deadline was January 25, 2024, and it has passed. If you did not register by then, the program is not accepting new claims.

Participation among people who did register was overwhelming. By March 2024, more than 99% of claimants had enrolled, and 3M projected the final rate would exceed 99.9%.⁵

What Comes Out of Your Payment

Contingency fees in this litigation generally run 33% to 40% of the individual recovery. The court sorted plaintiffs’ law firms into two groups: 266 “ledgering firms” whose accounting runs through the settlement administrator, and 73 “non-ledgering firms” that handle their own. Under Case Management Order 93, non-ledgering firms have to distribute each client’s share within 60 days of receiving funds from the Qualified Settlement Fund, or explain the delay.²

Liens are the other deduction. VA benefits are not subject to reimbursement, and the VA cannot place a lien on settlement recoveries. Private health insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid liens are the claimant’s responsibility and come out of settlement funds. The settlement administrator provides a lien questionnaire to help reduce those obligations.

If You Took a Lawsuit Loan

Judge M. Casey Rodgers, who presides over the MDL in the Northern District of Florida, took a hard line on third-party litigation funding. In Case Management Order 61, issued the same day the settlement was announced, she said settlements of this size have historically attracted entities “intending to prey on litigants” and described the funding arrangements as featuring “exorbitant fees and rates of interest” that could distort claimants’ choices and create conflicts with their lawyers.⁶

The order required full disclosure of every existing funding agreement — lender, loan terms, interest rates, and all documentation — filed under seal with the court and the settlement administrator. It also barred plaintiffs’ attorneys from participating in or approving any new funding deals and prohibited claimants from getting additional third-party funding without advance court approval. If you took out a lawsuit loan, the settlement administrator was ordered to hold your funds in the Qualified Settlement Fund until further court order.⁷

How Claims Are Administered

BrownGreer PLC is the Settlement Data Administrator and runs a platform called MDL Centrality that processes claims and issues payments. Claimants log into a secure portal to view status, payment information, and lien details. ARCHER Systems handles day-to-day administration, and most correspondence claimants receive comes from Archer rather than their personal attorneys.³⁸

Where the Litigation Stands Now

The federal MDL is closed. As of early 2026, not a single claimant remains in the federal multidistrict litigation — every case has been dismissed. Only 11 coordinated Minnesota state court cases were still pending as of late September 2025, and those are expected to close as processing continues.²

The settlement program itself continues through 2029. Remaining work involves the annual point-value recalculations for DPP awards, ongoing EIF application processing, and disbursement of the funding installments 3M owes in each of those years.

The Ugandan Claims

In December 2025, Special Master David Herndon reported significant misconduct in about 1,000 claims filed by Alabama-based Heninger Garrison Davis on behalf of Ugandan nationals. Almost all of the claims were fraudulent: the audiograms were largely faked or forged, the claimants had no verified exposure to the earplugs, and the firm failed to check hearing tests against available U.S. government databases for the purported military contractors.⁹

The Special Master found no intentional fraud by the firm itself but determined two firm members were “consciously and recklessly indifferent,” allowing fraud through a Ugandan referral source identified as Arafah Musoke, who provided the forged documentation. The report recommended the firm repay approximately $804,000 in payouts that went to fraudulent claims (including nearly $322,000 in attorney fees), plus at least $50,000 in sanctions and additional penalties for individual attorneys. Judge Rodgers subsequently invalidated the Ugandan claims, disqualifying them from further compensation.⁹

What to Do If You Have Questions About Your Claim

Your first stop is the secure claimant portal, where your track, payment status, and any outstanding lien information are posted. Correspondence from ARCHER Systems is the official channel for updates. If you cannot reach your original attorney or the firm handling your case has changed, the settlement program’s contact information is available through the portal and through the Combat Arms Settlement website. For DPP claimants waiting on point-based awards, the next material change to your payment will come with the October 2026 recalculation, which is projected to carry the largest share of remaining fund value.

1
3M Investor Relations. 3M Announces Combat Arms Settlement
2
Combat Arms Settlement. CAE Settlement Program
3
BrownGreer. Combat Arms Earplugs Settlement
4
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Florida. Settlement Alert 25-0002
5
3M Investor Relations. Combat Arms Earplugs Settlement Moves to Final Resolution
6
U.S. Courts. Case Management Order No. 61 — Third-Party Litigation Funding
7
Legal Dive. 3M Earplugs Settlement: Plaintiffs’ Counsel Must Disclose Litigation Funders
8
U.S. Courts. Order of Appointment of Settlement Data Administrator
9
Florida Justice. Law Firm Faces Sanctions for Failing to Vet Ugandan Claims in $6B 3M Case