Litigation Update: 3M Awaits Decision on Attorney-Client Privilege Question

by | Sep 30, 2020

There have been several new developments in the 3M Combat Arms Earplugs litigation—one of the largest consumer mass torts ever.

3M has filed a motion in Phoenix Federal Court requesting the judge to render a decision in response to its request to force Top Class Actions (TCA), a website that refers readers to plaintiffs’ lawyers, to comply with requests for information about how the site gets clients’ information to lawyers. However, TCA wants the judge who is presiding over the earplugs MDL in Florida to decide the issue.  To date, there are more than 200,000 cases consolidated in the MDL alleging that 3M’s earplugs sold to the US military were defective.

According to a story published on Legal Newsline: “3M’s Motion to Compel puts at issue significant questions concerning the relevancy and confidentiality of the requested records, as well as important privileges (including the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrines), which implicate the underlying MDL and would benefit from Judge Rodgers’ and Judge Jones’ expertise in this matter,” TCA’s lawyers wrote.

Contact forms on TCA connect readers with plaintiff’s lawyers, but TCA says that the attorney-client privilege it asserts pertains to the records sought by 3M and that potential plaintiffs likely expected their communications on TCA’s website would be protected.

Click on this link for information on Verus’ Earplug Litigation Support Services. To contact us, fill out this form or email us at info@verusllc.com and we will reply immediately.

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