No individual personal injury payout has been finalized in the AFFF lawsuit, so any average payout for the AFFF lawsuit today is a projection, not a settled figure. Attorney estimates put the strongest cases, involving serious cancers and heavy occupational exposure, in the range of $200,000 to $600,000, mid-tier claims around $150,000 to $200,000, and weaker claims under $75,000. Those numbers come from comparable mass tort cases, not from any court order or global settlement.
Why There Is No Real Average Yet
Thousands of AFFF cases are consolidated in Multi-District Litigation (MDL No. 2873) in the District of South Carolina.1United States District Court District of South Carolina. Aqueous Film-Forming Foams Products Liability Litigation MDL No. 2873 As of January 2026, roughly 15,200 cases are pending, with nearly 20,000 filed since the litigation began. Plaintiffs include firefighters, military veterans, airport workers, and residents near contaminated sites who say manufacturers knew AFFF contained dangerous PFAS chemicals but failed to warn users.
Two large settlements have already resolved claims by public water systems: 3M’s agreement with a nominal cap of $12.5 billion, approved in March 2024,23M. 3M Settlement with Public Water Suppliers to Address PFAS and a separate $1.185 billion settlement by DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva.3DuPont. Chemours, DuPont, and Corteva Reach Comprehensive PFAS Settlement with US Water Systems Those deals paid water utilities, not individuals with cancer. Personal injury claims are on a separate track.
Bellwether trials were scheduled to begin in late 2025, prioritizing plaintiffs with serious diagnoses like cancer and liver damage. Their outcomes will shape any broader personal injury settlement. Large jury verdicts push projected payouts up; defense wins push them down. As of this writing, no personal injury verdicts or settlements in the MDL have been publicly reported, which is why no true average exists.
What Determines Your Payout Tier
Mass tort settlements rarely pay every plaintiff the same amount. Claims get ranked by severity, and several factors decide where yours lands.
The diagnosis matters most. Kidney cancer and testicular cancer have the strongest scientific evidence linking them to PFAS, and the National Cancer Institute has identified both, along with thyroid cancer, as cancers with research-supported PFAS links.4National Cancer Institute. PFAS Exposure and Risk of Cancer The MDL covers a broader list, including bladder, breast, colon, liver, pancreatic, prostate, rectal, ovarian, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, leukemia, multiple myeloma, and mesothelioma, plus non-cancer conditions like ulcerative colitis, thyroid disease, liver damage, immune suppression, and reproductive problems. Claims involving conditions with weaker epidemiological support face a harder road and generally sit in lower tiers.
Exposure history is the second big factor. A career firefighter who trained with AFFF for two decades presents a stronger case than someone with brief or incidental contact. The strongest claims typically come from municipal and industrial firefighters, military personnel (particularly Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps veterans who worked around hangars, runways, or ships), airport rescue and firefighting crews, and workers at oil refineries and chemical plants where AFFF was standard equipment. Residents who drank contaminated water near military bases, airports, or training facilities can also qualify.
Age and financial damages round out the picture. A 45-year-old diagnosed with cancer faces decades of projected medical costs and lost earning capacity that a 75-year-old retiree with the same diagnosis does not. Extensive medical records, expert testimony tying the exposure to the illness, and documented economic losses all push a claim higher.
Projected Payout Ranges
No court or settlement administrator has published official amounts for individual AFFF personal injury claims. The ranges plaintiffs’ attorneys quote are educated projections based on the water system settlements, comparable mass torts, and the strength of the underlying science. They generally fall into three bands:
- Tier 1, strongest claims: $200,000 to $600,000 or more. Long-term occupational exposure paired with a diagnosis of kidney cancer, testicular cancer, or another high-severity condition.
- Tier 2, moderate claims: $150,000 to $200,000. Solid exposure evidence and a qualifying diagnosis that falls below the top tier.
- Tier 3, lower-severity claims: Under $75,000. Less direct exposure, weaker medical links, or less severe conditions.
Treat these numbers with skepticism. A $50 million jury verdict against a defendant would pull projections upward; a defense verdict would compress them. Until actual settlements are finalized, every dollar figure attached to these claims is speculative.
What You Actually Take Home
A settlement number is never the number that reaches your bank account. Several deductions come off the top.
Attorney Fees and Litigation Costs
AFFF cases run on contingency. You pay nothing upfront, and your attorney takes a percentage of the recovery. In mass tort work, that percentage is typically around 33%, though it ranges from 20% to 40% depending on the firm and the case. On a $300,000 settlement, a 33% fee is $99,000.
Litigation costs are separate from the fee. These are expenses your attorney advanced: expert witnesses, medical record retrieval, filing fees, travel, administrative work. Some firms deduct costs before calculating their percentage, others deduct costs after. The difference can be thousands of dollars, so read the fee agreement before signing it.
Medicare and Medicaid Liens
If Medicare or Medicaid paid for treatment tied to your AFFF-connected diagnosis, the federal government has a legal right to reimbursement from your settlement.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 42 U.S. Code 1395y – Exclusions From Coverage and Medicare as Secondary Payer The lien must be reported within 60 days of settlement, and you generally have 60 days after Medicare’s final demand letter to pay before interest accrues. Failing to reimburse can trigger double damages and penalties.
If the lien seems disproportionate to what you actually recovered, your attorney can request a reduction through the Medicare Secondary Payer Recovery Portal. Medicare weighs comparative fault, legal expenses, and financial hardship. Private health insurers and hospitals may also assert liens depending on your state’s laws and your insurance contract. Resolving liens is often the slowest part of the payout process, sometimes taking three to six months after settlement.
A Rough Example
On a hypothetical $300,000 Tier 1 settlement: $99,000 in attorney fees, $15,000 in litigation costs, and $25,000 in Medicare liens leaves roughly $161,000 in your pocket. The specific numbers will vary. The point holds: a $300,000 settlement does not mean $300,000 for you.
How Taxes Affect Your Settlement
Most of an AFFF personal injury settlement is not taxable. Federal law excludes damages received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness from gross income.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness The exclusion covers medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages tied to the physical injury, and projected future medical costs. Emotional distress damages are also tax-free when they flow from the physical injury.
Two categories are always taxable. Punitive damages count as ordinary income and go on Schedule 1 of Form 1040. Interest on settlement amounts, pre-judgment or post-judgment, is taxable as interest income on line 2b.7Internal Revenue Service. Settlements Taxability (Publication 4345) Because AFFF settlements rest on physical illness claims, most of any individual payout should qualify for the exclusion. If your settlement agreement does not clearly allocate amounts between compensatory and punitive components, you could end up disputing the treatment with the IRS. Make sure the allocation is spelled out in writing.
Filing Deadlines Still Apply
Every state sets a statute of limitations on personal injury claims. Most fall between one and three years, but the clock does not necessarily start on the day of exposure. Under the discovery rule, which most states apply to toxic tort cases, the period begins when you were diagnosed or when you reasonably should have known your illness was connected to AFFF exposure. That matters here because decades can pass between exposure and diagnosis.
Some states extend deadlines for delayed diagnoses or other specific circumstances. Because the MDL pools cases from across the country, the deadline that governs your claim is your state’s, not South Carolina’s. Missing it almost certainly means losing the right to recover anything, so if you have a qualifying diagnosis and a plausible exposure history, a legal consultation should not wait.