Camp Lejeune Breaking News: New Law Looks to Help Compensate Water Contamination Victims

Attorneys for Camp Lejeune lawsuit plaintiffs informed the court this month that they expect to see a global settlement resolving the long-running toxic water litigation by the end of 2025.

A March 21 status report submitted to the North Carolina federal court by attorneys designated as “settlement masters” states that the parties are “committed to participating in global settlement discussions in good faith” and have agreed to a proposed settlement process that could kickstart claims administration by the end of the year. 

Per the status report, the tentative Camp Lejeune settlement process would involve a random sample of 2,500 claimants who have filed cases in court or with the Navy. The claimants would receive a questionnaire about their cases as the parties, in parallel with the questionnaire process, engage in bellwether mediation to gauge the value of individual cases.

Ultimately, the parties will use the information compiled from the questionnaire and bellwether mediation processes to negotiate a global, or at least broad, settlement. 

The status report includes no mention of what type of relief may be available through any potential global Camp Lejeune settlement.

The claims deadline for U.S. Marine Corps servicemembers and their families over illnesses linked to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune passed on August 10, 2024, meaning the Department of the Navy is no longer accepting claims filed under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.

According to a joint status report submitted on July 30, more than 323,000 Camp Lejeune claims have been filed with the United States Navy. The Navy has so far extended 109 settlement offers, with 64 having resulted in administrative claim settlements, the document states.

The Camp Lejeune claims deadline came two years after the Camp Lejeune Justice Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden on August 10, 2022.

Over 100 settlements worth a total of $23.4 million have been reached so far in decades-old litigation over the water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, according to court documents.

The parties submitted to the court on July 30, 2024, a joint status report in which they stated payments have been sent for 58 of the accepted Camp Lejeune settlement offers made by the Navy and 38 accepted settlement offers from the Department of Justice (DOJ). From February 2023 to July 26 of this year, 1,895 Camp Lejeune Justice Act lawsuits have been filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the document states.

Injuries for which settlements have been reached include bladder cancer, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney cancer, kidney disease and multiple myeloma.

According to a June 2024 joint status report, $14.4 million in Navy and DOJ Camp Lejeune settlements had been accepted as of that month.

On July 30, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Gates ruled that updates on Camp Lejeune settlement offers cannot be shown at hearings. Judge Gates stated that, to “protect the integrity of the settlement negotiations,” the parties are not permitted to present confidential settlement information at status conferences, nor should written joint status reports contain confidential settlement information.

Two Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuit plaintiffs have asked a federal court for permission to appeal a February 2024 panel decision denying their request for a jury trial. 

In a nine-page filing, the plaintiffs petitioned North Carolina United States District Judge Robert B. Jones, Jr., to allow them to appeal the four-judge panel’s decision on the grounds that the matter of whether the Camp Lejeune Justice Act allows for jury trials is a novel, largely unprecedented “controlling question of law” that warrants an immediate appeal, particularly given the large number of cases in the Camp Lejeune MDL. 

The plaintiffs highlighted in their argument that the Camp Lejeune Justice Act jury trial question “appears to be the first decision ever holding that a statute that grants a right of action against the United States and expressly refers to the right to a jury trial is insufficient to authorize jury trials.” The litigants also contended that there exists plenty of room for “a difference of opinion” on whether the law allows for Camp Lejeune plaintiffs to have a jury trial. 

“[R]esolving this question in an immediate appeal would ‘materially advance the ultimate termination of the litigation’ because many of the thousands of [Camp Lejeune Justice Act] cases tried over the ensuing years without a jury may have to be retried—wasting tremendous amounts of judicial and party resources—in the event that the Fourth Circuit or the Supreme Court reverses this Court’s ruling,” the plaintiffs urged.

Four judges overseeing the Camp Lejeune water contamination litigation in North Carolina have ruled that the plaintiffs in nearly 1,500 civil cases filed after the passage of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act two years ago will not have a jury trial. 

The judges—Chief U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II and U.S. District Judges Terrence W. Boyle, Louise W. Flanagan and James C. Dever III—found that the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 “does not unequivocally, affirmatively, and unambiguously provide plaintiffs the right to a jury trial in actions seeking relief” under a subsection of the law. 

Moreover, the judges wrote, Congress, in passing the CLJA, “did not clearly and unequivocally depart from its usual practice of not permitting a jury trial against the United States.” 

“No part of the CLJA’s text contains an unequivocal, affirmative, and unambiguous right to a trial by jury against the United States,” the judges stated, noting that the plain text of the statute itself is enough to conclude that Congress did not intend to confer a right to trial by jury against the federal government on Camp Lejeune water contamination plaintiffs. 

The order expands that under precedent set by the Supreme Court, civil litigation brought against the federal government does not automatically include a right to a trial by jury unless the law at the center of the dispute plainly and unambiguously allows for such.

A new federal government study has revealed that thousands of military and civilian workers who were at Camp Lejeune between 1972 and 1985 were significantly more likely to develop cancer compared to a reference group of personnel on similarly-sized Camp Pendleton in California, which “was not known to have contaminated drinking water during the years prior to 1986.” 

The study, authored by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a subagency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, focused on Marines and Navy personnel and civilians who, between 1972 and 1985, were stationed or employed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina or Camp Pendleton, California. 

Ultimately, the study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, found more than 13,600 incidents of cancer among Camp Lejeune Marines/Navy personnel and civilian workers, demonstrating that individuals “likely exposed to contaminated drinking water” at the base between 1953 and 1987 had an “[i]ncreased risk[] of several cancers.”

In early January 2024, the United States Department of Justice and Department of the Navy issued a fraud alert to those filing a claim or lawsuit under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. 

In particular, the DOJ and the Navy warned against “fraudulent attempts to obtain information or monetary payments from potential claimants” and emphasized “growing concerns over reports that unscrupulous people and companies” are looking to obtain personal information from Camp Lejeune water contamination victims. 

The DOJ and the Navy advised that Camp Lejeune claimants and their attorneys “be cautious of potentially fraudulent activity through telephone calls or email solicitations.” The departments stressed that they will never request money or payment from a claimant, and that claimants should direct any such inquiries to their representing attorney, if they have one, for verification. 

“Claimants who receive calls or emails from individuals attempting to collect money or personal information in connection with their CLJA claim should contact their attorneys to report this activity,” the departments said in a press release. “Claimants who are not represented by counsel that receive such calls or emails should immediately report this activity to the Navy’s Camp Lejeune Claims Unit (CLCU).”

On September 6, 2023, the United States Justice Department and the Department of the Navy announced the creation of a new voluntary process designed to help veterans and others resolve their claims more quickly under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) of 2022. 

This new “elective option” process, the departments said in a press release, supplements the processes currently available under the CLJA and provides a framework for the Department of the Navy to resolve certain CLJA claims “quickly, equitably and transparently.” In order to be eligible for the elective option, a Camp Lejeune claimant must first submit an administrative claim to the Department of the Navy.

More specifically, the elective option allows the Navy to “focus its review on a few key aspects of a CLJA claim,” such as the type of injury suffered by a claimant and the amount of time the person worked or lived at Camp Lejeune. This process allows for faster validation of claims and, ultimately, the extension of settlement offers to qualified claimants. 

Overall, the new elective option “provides similar settlement offers to claimants with similar exposures and injuries with similar evidence of causation.” Within the elective option framework, the Department of the Navy is authorized to make settlement offers to eligible claimants with diseases the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has determined are connected to the chemicals found in the water at Camp Lejeune. 

The press release states that, to date, more than 93,000 CLJA claims have been filed with the Department of the Navy. 

How much can I get from a Camp Lejeune elective option claim?

According to the press release, award amounts to qualifying claimants are tiered and based “largely on the ATSDR’s classification of the strength of evidence” linking the contaminated Camp Lejeune water to an individual’s particular disease.

For Tier 1 Diagnoses, a claimant with kidney or liver cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemia or bladder cancer would receive a settlement offer of $450,000, $300,000 or $150,000, depending on whether they were exposed to Camp Lejeune water for more than five years, between one and five years, or between 30 and 364 days, respectively. 

For Tier 2 Diagnoses, a claimant with multiple myeloma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney disease, or systemic sclerosis/systemic scleroderma would receive a settlement offer of $400,000, $250,000 or $100,000 depending on whether they were exposed to toxic Camp Lejeune water for over five years, between one and five years, or between 30 and 364 days, respectively. 

Claims involving death would receive an additional $100,000, the press release states. 

Those who believe they qualify for relief under the CLJA can follow the instructions here to submit a claim and provide supporting documentation.