The next MB Live will air Friday, May 24th at 2:00 PM Central Time and will feature Attorney Joel Dilorenzo for a discussion on the combat veteran earplug case against 3M, including what gives rise to a claim, who is included, how the claims process works, who the Defendant is and who isn’t.
Soldiers who were deployed between 2003 and 2015 were issued the 3M Combat Arms earplugs despite the fact that the dual-ended earplugs were too short for proper insertion. Because of this defect, the earplugs could loosen in the users’ ears, potentially resulting in serious, even permanent hearing loss or tinnitus. 3M is also charged with manipulating test results to ensure their earplugs would meet government standards and they would be awarded the lucrative government earplug contract.
By some estimates, as many as 52 percent of all military personnel have from moderately severe to severe levels of hearing loss—as of 2014, nearly one million veterans were receiving disability compensation for hearing loss, while as many as 1.3 million were receiving compensation for buzzing in the ears or ringing in the ears—symptoms of tinnitus. The partial or total hearing loss experienced by soldiers can be the result of a single exposure to an intense sound (such as an explosion) or can be caused by continuous, long-term exposure (repeated gunfire, or the sounds in engine rooms or on aircraft carrier decks).
Joel Dilorenzo is a founding partner with the Birmingham, Alabama based law firm the Dilorenzo Law Firm, LLC. Joel focuses his practice on complex personal injury and wrongful death cases. He has been named by the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys to its Top 10 Personal Injury Attorneys Under Age 40 list. Mr. DiLorenzo has also been named to The National Trial Lawyers: Top 40 Under 40, and he has received an AV Pre-eminent* peer review rating through Martindale-Hubbell as well as a 10.0 “Superb” peer review rating by Avvo.
To tune in to this episode of M&B Live, visit the Martinson & Beason Facebook page at facebook.com/martinsonandbeason.