3M Earplug Talks Ongoing After Judge Saw Impasse, Mediators Say

Active discussions have been taking place between 3M Co. and service members who blame its combat earplugs for hearing loss, mediators said in a report to the court overseeing a 3M subsidiary’s bankruptcy proceedings.

Mediators Randi Ellis and Christopher Sontchi provided the update Friday, two days after Judge M. Casey Rodgers, who oversees multidistrict litigation on the earplug claims in federal court in Florida, declared the parties at an impasse and terminated formal mediation sessions there.

Ellis and Sontchi will hold a formal mediation session in February, they told the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Indiana.

Rodgers ...