3M has agreed to settle lawsuits over chemicals known as PFAS that have seeped into groundwater.
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Plaintiff lawyers representing more than 100,000 people suing over exposure to PFAS “forever chemicals” have agreed to settle their lawsuits against 3M for $7.35 billion, as long as they can get their clients to go along.
The settlement announced yesterday follows what is now a familiar pattern in multidistrict litigation, in which 3M agrees to pay out the money in installments only if plaintiff lawyers agree to try to convince 100% of their clients the deal is in their best interest. Under the terms of the settlement, the lawyers also agree to cease advertising for PFAS clients, bring no more cases and keep the dollar amounts of individual payments secret.
With an estimated 120,000 plaintiffs, the settlement works out to about $60,000 per claimant, before legal fees. The lead attorneys will also take a percentage of the total fund in common-benefit fees, which courts often award as compensation for doing most of the work in the litigation. The PFAS MDL was led by Douglas & London and Baron & Budd.
“For the thousands of victims who have sought answers and accountability for nearly a decade, 3M’s $7.35 billion settlement is welcome news,” said Motley Rice attorneys Fred Thompson and David Hoyle, in a statement commending the MDL leadership team. They said claimants are “in urgent need of support to cover the mounting medical bills and other costs frequently associated with toxic PFAS exposure.”
3M doesn’t admit fault in the settlement, which follows earlier settlements including a $12.5 billion agreement in 2023 to end litigation by municipal water utilities. The chemicals used in firefighting foam, Teflon pans and many other products leach into groundwater and have been associated with several diseases, although precise causation has not been established.
The settlement fund will pay benefits to claimants diagnosed with cancers of the kidney, testes or thyroid as well as ulcerative colitis or thyroid disease. Plaintiff lawyers agree in the settlement that “current science” doesn’t support any other injuries.
3M removed PFAS from its products 20 years ago, so that combined with the agreement by the most prominent lawyers to stop representing PFAS clients led the company to say the deal “substantially reduces litigation uncertainty.” The settlement says other companies continued to make PFAS compounds for many years afterward, increasing their potential liability as 3M’s declines.
The settlement agreement includes undisclosed “participation levels” plaintiff lawyers must meet for the money to flow, starting with a $50 million payment this year. If lawyers convince enough of their clients to sign off, 3M will pay $1.1 billion a year starting in 2028 with $350 million in “bonus” payments if participation rates hit higher, undisclosed levels.
Such agreements skirt legal ethics rules that require lawyers to represent their clients’ interest only and not recommend an agreement that rewards them with fees at the expense of larger potential trial verdicts. The settlement says nothing in it “is intended to operate as a `restriction’ on the right of any person’s counsel to practice law,” with “restriction” referring to a provision in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct.
Under typical client arrangements, the lawyers stand to collect 40%, or almost $3 billion, in fees. Unlike with a class action, there is no provision for future claimants who develop diseases they attribute to PFAS exposure.
As in previous MDL settlements, plaintiff lawyers have effectively agreed to end the litigation by vowing not to bring more cases, halting advertising and agreeing to assist the defendant in moving any new cases to the existing MDL. The lawyers also agree to cease representing any clients who fail to submit required paperwork, which has proven to be a problem in the PFAS MDL.
