Lawsuit Information CenterWe have been updating victims on Camp Lejeune since this litigation started. This is our archives for people who want to review older Camp Lejeune updates.
- Get March 2024 Lejeune news and information
June 6, 2024 – Plaintiffs’ Lose Causation Motion
As we discussed in our update on January 16, 2024, lawyers for Camp Lejeune victims moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of causation. Plaintiffs also moved for leave to file the Motion without an accompanying Statement of Material Facts.
Yesterday, the court denied the plaintiffs’ motion. The court determined that individuals bringing Camp Lejeune lawsuits bear the burden of demonstrating that their harm was caused by exposure to the water at Camp Lejeune, requiring them to establish general and specific causation.
Plaintiffs had argued that the CLJA’s causation standard departs from common-law tort requirements, asserting that claimants need not prove specific causation if they meet the statutory 30-day exposure requirement. They claimed that the CLJA establishes a distinct causation framework, similar to the VA’s presumption-based system for benefits.
The court sees it differently than the plaintiffs, which is becoming a trend of late.
May 31, 2024 – Dr. Portier
Last week, we reported on the government’s attempt to quash the deposition of Dr. Christopher Portier, the ATSDR Director during these studies, who oversaw and was involved in the water modeling and health studies for Camp Lejeune. The government’s motion for a protective order aims to prevent the deposition, claiming Dr. Portier’s involvement was minimal and bemoaning the costs of a deposition in Italy.
Yesterday, plaintiffs’ lawyers filed a response. Their motion argues that the government seeks to disavow the ATSDR’s findings, instead embracing a critical report by the National Research Council (NRC), a private entity. Dr. Portier had defended the ATSDR’s studies, highlighting errors in the NRC’s report. The motion argues that the government’s motion lacks specific factual support and that Dr. Portier’s deposition is essential to effectively challenge the NRC report’s criticisms.
Attorneys for victims also assert that Dr. Portier has willingly volunteered to testify, and they will cover the costs of ensuring the deposition is conducted in compliance with international laws. The government’s main concern appears to be the expenses involved, which the motion argues, as I did last week, are negligible compared to the context of this litigation.
May 28, 2024 – New Bill
A new bill in Congress proposes removing the restriction that cases must be filed exclusively in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. This change would permit it to be heard in any district court within the Fourth Circuit for trial.
First impression: this would cause chaos that would not help anybody. These four judges who make the law governing the claims create a real organization for the litigation. I don’t always like the rulings (the jury trial ruling in particular), but this structure helps advance the litigation.
May 24, 2024 – Protective Order for Dr. Christopher Portier
Plaintiffs’ lawyers have noted the deposition of Dr. Christopher Portier, former Director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The deposition is scheduled for May 28, 2024, in Domodossola, Italy.
In a motion yesterday, the DOJ contends that the cost of conducting the deposition in Italy outweighs any potential benefits. They argue that Dr. Portier had limited direct involvement in the ATSDR’s Camp Lejeune studies and that relevant information is already being gathered through the scheduled depositions of two key ATSDR scientists, Dr. Frank Bove and Morris Maslia, who had more direct involvement.
I try to be mostly neutral in these updates. But give me a break. The government is going to pay tens of billions of dollars in settlements. Given the stakes of this litigation, is a trip to Italy really so inconvenient and costly? (Do you really think DOJ lawyers are not already making jokes about who gets to go on that trip? They could also do a video deposition, of course, especially if the witness is as unimportant as they say.)
Dr. Portier’s testimony could be extremely important. His critical review of the National Research Council’s report on Camp Lejeune highlighted deficiencies and provided a more nuanced understanding of the potential health impacts. He has also previously evaluated studies and reports concerning Camp Lejeune’s water contamination.
Moreover, while Dr. Portier may not have had direct involvement in every study, his role as Director means he was privy to strategic decisions and scientific interpretations that shaped ATSDR’s response to the Camp Lejeune situation. His testimony can illuminate ATSDR’s stance on the health risks posed by the contaminants and any internal deliberations that informed their public statements and reports.
May 16, 2024 – Discovery Battles
The lawyers had a conference with the magistrate judge today to discuss the various discovery battles between the parties.
May 15, 2024 – People Trying to Represent Themselves
At this point, most of the new clients we are getting are victims who tried to do it themselves and are realizing it will be much harder than they thought. If this describes you, give us a call.
May 14, 2024 – Court Orders ATSDR to Produce Files
Yesterday, the court partially granted the plaintiffs’ motion to require the ATSDR to produce certain specialized files in their original format. However, the request for a complete “mirror image” of all the water modeling project files was denied.
The ruling involves two types of files: the “Exotic Modeling Files,” which include complex data like Geographic Information System files, and a broader set of standard electronic files such as PDFs and Word documents, referred to as “Non-Exotic Files.” While the court ordered that all Exotic Modeling Files be produced in their native format according to the production specifications, it rejected the idea of producing a mirror image of all modeling files, limiting the scope of document production.
The plaintiffs have expressed difficulties in verifying the accuracy of their reconstructed model without the complete files as maintained by the ATSDR. They argue that without the mirror image, they cannot confirm if their reconstructed project file accurately represents the original. The court seems to understand there may be a problem. It has scheduled an in-camera presentation by the plaintiffs to demonstrate further the specific problems they are facing with the file functionality. So everyone can sit down and figure out what is needed.
May 13, 2024 – New Awful Decision on Jury Trial Appeal
In a surprising decision this morning, the North Carolina Camp Lejeune judges denied a motion seeking immediate appellate review of a previous ruling that struck down the plaintiffs’ demand for a jury trial.
This decision came after the United States successfully argued for the removal of the jury trial option, a move that just two plaintiffs contested. The thinking was that the cases could move forward, but these plaintiffs would appeal the decision, which would, if reversed, ultimately apply to the remaining plaintiffs. It seemed like the best past to keep these cases moving and give victims a chance to adequately challenge and rectify what we think is a misapplication of the law concerning their right to a jury trial under the CLJA.
The court relied on historical precedents emphasizing that interlocutory appeals are exceptions to the general rule of awaiting final judgment before review. But we all know – and those judges certainly know – what this ruling means in practical terms. Before an appellate court ever reviews this jury question issue, there will likely be a settlement of large blocks of Camp Lejeune lawsuits – maybe the lion’s share of these claims. Settlement amounts for these victims will be calculated, assuming there is no right to a jury trial. It hardly seems fair.
May 12, 2024 – Total Camp Lejeune Settlements
The government says that the “latest statistics bear out the effectiveness of the [Elective Option] program.”
This is a pretty crazy assertion. The Elective Option for settlement was announced seven months ago. We only have $9 million in settlements. Only 36 cases have been settled. The settlement program is inadequate in terms of the amount offered and has made little progress in extending offers to the many thousands of claimants eligible for settlement.
The delays have been attributed to the government’s inability to efficiently access and verify records held by other federal agencies, particularly the VA. Initial plans to develop a technical solution for bulk eligibility verification were abandoned, and the government resorted to a slow, manual search process for each claimant. How is that going to work for 227,309 claims? This is the pace at which this litigation will be resolved in thousands of years.
May 11, 2024 – Government Alleges Lawyers Not Conveying Offers
The government alleges that in some cases, plaintiffs’ lawyers have not promptly communicated Camp Lejeune settlement offers, or the victims were not informed about the deadlines for these offers. It says it is now proactively reminding plaintiffs’ counsel about pending Elective Option offers and their upcoming expiration dates.
The government also says it has considered reasonable requests to revisit settlement offers and, in specific situations, has increased the amounts of these offers based on new evidence provided.
May 10, 2024 – Update Case Count
The latest case count is 1,764 lawsuits. The number of administrative claims has jumped to 227,309. So there are not many new lawsuits, but the number of claims filed with the Navy has soared.
May 9, 2024 – Muster Rolls Dispute
The government says the muster rolls dispute we discussed in the May 5th update below is a misunderstanding. It maintains that all relevant data and databases have been provided, specifically from a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device at Quantico, which holds the records in question.
The DOJ explains that this database has been variously named over the years, but the U.S. clarifies that the different names refer to the same database. What about the PowerPort slide victims’ lawyer found suggesting the existence of a separate “MUDD database?” The government says this is just another name for the already produced data.
April 26, 2024 – Plaintiffs’ Track 3 Proposal
The attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the Camp Lejeune case have submitted a formal proposal to consider serious illnesses in Track 5.
The proposed diseases are
- multiple myeloma
- pancreatic cancer
- esophageal cancer
- aplastic anemia/myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)
- scleroderma.
The history of this is late last year, the plaintiffs’ Camp Lejeune lawyers proposed liver cancer, sclerosis/scleroderma, multiple myeloma, kidney disease, and aplastic anemia for Track 3. They also suggested that the illnesses submitted by the government for Track 2 be considered for Track 3.
In a separate filing on the same day, the government recommended that the court select any of the five diseases not chosen from the U.S. proposed diseases for Track 2, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and esophageal cancer. The court designated the illnesses for Track 2.
With the diseases selected for Track 2 removed from both submissions, the remaining conditions for consideration are pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer, sclerosis/scleroderma, multiple myeloma, and aplastic anemia, which the plaintiffs’ Camp Lejeune attorneys have nominated for Track 5.
There is understandable frustration from victims with illnesses that will not be included in the first three tracks. How are the diseases being selected? The reasons stated by both sides are the disease’s severity and the probable number of affected cases. The unstated reason is that both sides want to push forward cases they can win, which will have higher verdicts (or, from the government’s perspective, lower verdicts). That is why the government is pushing cases like “dental effects” and hypersensitivity skin disorders. They do not even represent the plaintiffs’ primary health concerns and, in many cases, such as dental effects, may be secondary to cancer treatments.
April 22, 2024 – Settlement Master
Camp Lejeune attorneys on both sides are interviewing candidates to suggest as potential Settlement Masters to help them find a path to a more reasonable global settlement plan. Names will be provided to the court by Friday.
April 21, 2024 – Number of Outstanding Claims
There have been 1,740 lawsuits filed under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA). Among these, 25 cases have been dismissed, with 21 being voluntary dismissals and the remaining four being pro se cases. Over 16,000 new administrative claims have been filed with the Department of Navy, bringing the number to 190,561. There have been 40 Camp Lejeune settlements. So 0.021% of these claims have settled.
April 19, 2024 – Deadline to Respond to Records Motion
Today is the deadline for plaintiffs’ lawyers to respond to the motion discussed on April 12th below.
The Lejeune litigation docket has been slow this week. Again, Camp Lejeune attorneys are really focused on getting individual lawsuits ready for trial. That requires fewer global issue motions and more in-the-weeds discovery.
April 18, 2024 – Evidence Protocol
Plaintiffs’ Camp Lejeune attorneys asked the court yesterday to establish a protocol for storing individual plaintiffs’ evidence related to Camp Lejeune lawsuits.
This depository is needed because this litigation involves events spanning over seventy years, and relevant evidence includes tangible items, records, and documents existing or stored across various physical and virtual media, both old and new. In 2024, most of this is just stored electronically. But converting other documents and evidence currently in tangible form may be infeasible or unduly costly and time-consuming.
This is a good idea that the government does not oppose.
April 17, 2024 – Opt-Out Dispute
The government has filed a motion requesting reconsidering an order that declined to strike the opt-out provision from future discovery tracks in the Camp Lejeune water litigation.
The government’s motion argues that attorneys for Camp Lejeune water contamination victims are exploiting the opt-out provision to significantly limit the number of plaintiffs available for discovery and trial, thus compromising the representativeness of the bellwether cases. The motion highlights that lawyers have opted out a substantial portion of eligible cases from Track 2, contrary to their initial assurance that they did not foresee the need for such opt-outs in future tracks.
This concern is not uncommon. It is a leitmotif in many MDLs. But it is too late to complain now, and it is important to balance the need for a perfectly representative pool—an impossible goal, anyway—with fairness to real people.
April 8, 2024 – Single Disease Plaintiffs
Today, the government filed a motion asking the court to allow bellwether trials that only focus on diseases already recognized as associated with the Camp Lejeune water (“single disease plaintiffs”).
The government argues that cases where plaintiffs claim multiple diseases or conditions not yet recognized as being associated with the water are inherently complex and require extensive medical and scientific evidence. Therefore, the government suggests these complex cases should be tried later.
So the government is asking for a new deadline for identifying which plaintiffs fall into each category, and the time for discovering expert evidence will be extended for the multiple-disease Plaintiffs.
I understand the government’s point here. There are two problems. First, it is late in the game to ask for this. Second, some of the most tragic cases involve multiple-disease plaintiffs. How is it fair to take them out of the pool?
The government also wants to live in a fantasy world where only the illnesses it thinks are related to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune will be compensable. The sooner it is divorced from this notion, the better.
April 4, 2024 – Call Your Camp Lejeune Attorney
Some Camp Lejeune victims have hired multiple lawyers for the same claim. I have no idea why people do this, but it happens in every significant piece of litigation our attorneys see.
If you have done this, come clean and tell your lawyers now. Why? It may slow up the processing of any settlement offer you may receive.
March 27, 2024 – Claims Number and Settlement Statistics
As of yesterday, 1,662 suits had been filed under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, and approximately 176,662 administrative claims had been filed with the Navy.
As for Camp Lejeune settlements, there are not many when you look at these numbers. The Torts Branch has identified 51 cases in litigation that qualify for the Elective Option. The breakdown of cases by injury includes 14 cases of bladder cancer, 12 of kidney cancer, 10 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, five of kidney disease, four of Parkinson’s disease, four of leukemia, and two of multiple myeloma.
Twenty-one offers have been accepted by plaintiffs, including five cases of bladder cancer with settlements of $150,000, $150,000, $300,000, $300,000, and $450,000; four cases of kidney disease (end-stage renal disease) with settlements of $250,000, $250,000, $100,000, and $100,000; five cases of kidney cancer with settlements of $300,000, $300,000, $300,000, $300,000, and $150,000; three cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma with settlements of $150,000, $150,000, and $300,000; one case of multiple myeloma with a settlement of $250,000; two cases of Parkinson’s disease with settlements of $400,000 and $100,000; and one case of leukemia with a settlement of $300,000. Nine offers were rejected by plaintiffs, including cases of bladder cancer, kidney cancer, multiple myeloma, kidney disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Fifteen offers have expired, including cases of kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, bladder cancer, and leukemia. Six offers are pending.
Furthermore, the DOJ is also settling cases separate from the Torts Branch. Based on information provided by the Navy, it has approved offers for 59 claimants. Twenty-four settlement offers have been accepted, two have been rejected, 25 have expired, and eight are pending.
Payments have been sent for eight accepted settlement offers made by the Navy and eighteen accepted settlement offers from the DOJ, totaling $5,950,000. Six cases of bladder cancer resulted in two payments of $300,000, three payments of $150,000, and one payment of $450,000. Four cases of leukemia resulted in three payments of $300,000 and one payment of $150,000. Three cases of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma resulted in one payment of $300,000 and two payments of $150,000. Three cases of Parkinson’s disease resulted in one payment of $400,000, one payment of $250,000, and one payment of $100,000. Five cases of kidney cancer resulted in four payments of $300,000 and one payment of $150,000. Three cases of kidney disease resulted in two payments of $100,000 and one payment of $250,000. One case of multiple myeloma resulted in a payment of $250,000.
All told, payments totaling $5,950,000 have been made for eight settlements offered by the Navy and eighteen by the DOJ, covering various conditions like bladder cancer, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney cancer, kidney disease, and multiple myeloma, with amounts varying from $100,000 to $450,000.
Victims are understandably frustrated by the pace of the process. This is not what Congress intended.
March 25, 2024 – Updates
There was a status conference last week that went over the discovery disputes we have been talking about. The next conference is on April 2, 2024, which is a telephonic status hearing.
Many of you are coming here for regular updates and are not getting much information of late. We are not asleep at the wheel. The energy in the litigation right now is in getting cases ready for trial with pretrial discovery, which does not lend itself to as many updates. We give these boring “there is a status conference” updates sometimes, not so much that we think you care about the next status conference, but to remind you, we are putting all the relevant news our lawyers have.
We will keep you posted. In the meantime, you can share any questions or thoughts you have in the comments section below.
March 16, 2024 – Water Modeling
In our February 21st update, we told you about the motion to compel the Camp Lejeune Water Modeling Project. Again, the project modeled and analyzed the distribution and movement of contaminated water sources, mainly focusing on identifying the presence and levels of harmful substances in water supplies.
Today the court mostly granted plaintiffs’ motion to compel the production of these specific files in their native format to preserve their integrity and usability.
March 15, 2024 – Muster Rolls
The government has agreed to produce the muster rolls later this month. At Camp Lejeune, just like at any other military base, muster rolls meticulously record the presence, absence, and various statuses of the military personnel stationed there. There are digitized muster rolls from a digitization project conducted by the USMC and the VA between 2013 and 2015. So, the plaintiffs also sought access to the database or other data sources that came out of this effort.
This gives plaintiffs the ability to prove they were at Lejeune.
March 14, 2024 – Camp Lejeune Settlement Payouts So Far
There are two entities within the government making settlement offers: the Torts Branch and the DOJ.
The Torts Branch confirmed that 50 cases in litigation qualify for the Elective Option (EO) based on document verification. These cases are categorized by injury as follows:
- 14 for Bladder Cancer
- 12 for Kidney Cancer
- 10 for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
- 5 for Kidney Disease
- 4 for Parkinson’s Disease
- 3 for Leukemia
- 2 for Multiple Myeloma
Settlement offers have been extended, with 18 accepted across various conditions, including $150,000 to $450,000 for Bladder Cancer, $100,000 to $250,000 for Kidney Disease (End Stage Renal Disease), $150,000 to $300,000 for Kidney Cancer, $150,000 for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, $250,000 for Multiple Myeloma, and $100,000 to $400,000 for Parkinson’s Disease. Nine offers were declined, and ten have expired across different diagnoses. Currently, 13 settlement offers are still pending.
Additionally, the DOJ has made settlement offers to 59 claimants based on Navy-provided information, with 24 being accepted, two rejected, 25 expired, and eight pending. Payments totaling $3.6 million have been disbursed for eight settlements from the Navy and seven from the DOJ, covering various conditions such as Bladder Cancer, Leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Parkinson’s Disease, Kidney Cancer, and Kidney Disease, with amounts ranging from $100,000 to $400,000.
Is it too soon to call the Elective Option an utter failure? No. They have only settled a fraction of a fraction of these lawsuits. There needs to be a better plan. The parties are actively developing a questionnaire and a roadmap to facilitate a resolution. They also jointly proposed bringing on a lawyer to act as the Special Settlement Master. There is a growing recognition that settlement efforts have to move forward more quickly.
March 13, 2024: Case Count
We are now up to 1,633 Camp Lejeune lawsuits and 174,891 administrative claims.
March 11, 2024 – Status Conference
The court announced today the next status conference will be on March 19, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. in Wilmington.
March 8, 2024 – Moving Forward on Track 2 Discovery
Plaintiffs’ lawyers want to push the ball forward on Track 2 cases. Again, Track 2 cases are:
- Prostate Cancer
- Liver Cancer
- Lung Cancer
- Breast Cancer
- Kidney Disease
Plaintiffs want the court to remove the stay on cases within the Track 2 Discovery Pool and, upon selection of the Track 2 discovery plaintiffs, allow fact discovery for each plaintiff’s lawsuit to begin.
Of course, the government wants to delay. It proposes waiting to lift the stay on fact discovery for Track 2 illnesses after selecting Track 1 bellwether trial cases.
March 5, 2024 – Pretrial Discovery Rules Established
Both sides have agreed to specific rules to make the pretrial discovery more efficient in the Camp Lejeune water contamination litigation. This agreement, approved by the court in new Case Management Order #11, includes several key points:
- To manage the large number of cases efficiently, the agreement allows the government the chance to conduct independent medical exams on plaintiffs who have been examined by a medical expert to give testimony, hired by the plaintiffs’ lawyers. This right to what our lawyers call a “defense medical exam” is a right that defendants have in personal injury cases. But for the sake of speeding up the process, the government will skip its own medical exams of a plaintiff if that plaintiff agrees not to use their own exams for expert testimony in court.
- The plaintiffs’ attorneys have agreed to give early notice to the United States about any medical exams they plan for their clients by experts who will testify in court. This is to prevent the United States from having to request many defense expert exams that might not be needed, which always slows things down.
- The plaintiffs must inform the Navy as soon as they are sure that an expert who has examined a plaintiff will testify on behalf of that plaintiff. If they already know the expert will testify, this notice must be given before the medical exam. If an expert initially considered a consulting (non-testifying) expert is later decided to be a testifying expert, the plaintiffs’ attorneys must promptly notify the United States.
- This agreement does not cover ongoing treatments by plaintiffs’ regular healthcare providers or consultations with non-testifying expert witnesses.
- The agreement applies to any physical or mental examination under the legal rules, whether ordered by the court or not, except for expert meetings with a plaintiff that do not involve such examinations.
This stipulation is designed to streamline the handling of numerous lawsuits by reducing the number of medical exams and expert testimonies. This makes the legal process more efficient for both parties and helps us get more cases to trial faster.
February 28, 2024 – Camp Lejeune Settlement News
This is the latest government report on Camp Lejeune settlements:
As of February 27, 2024, the Torts Branch has identified that forty-eight (48) cases in litigation satisfy the Elective Option (“EO”) criteria, as confirmed through documentary evidence.
The distribution of these cases by type of injury is as follows: 13 instances of Bladder Cancer, 12 of Kidney Cancer, 10 of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, 5 of Kidney Disease, 3 of Parkinson’s Disease, 3 of Leukemia, and 2 of Multiple Myeloma.
In terms of settlement offers, seventeen (17) have been accepted by plaintiffs, including 5 cases of Bladder Cancer with settlements totaling $150,000, $150,000, $300,000, $300,000, and $450,000; 3 cases of Kidney Disease (End Stage Renal Disease) with settlements of $250,000, $100,000, and $100,000; 5 cases of Kidney Cancer with settlements totaling $300,000, $300,000, $300,000, $300,000, and $150,000; 2 cases of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma with settlements of $150,000 each; 1 case of Multiple Myeloma with a settlement of $250,000; and 1 case of Parkinson’s Disease with a settlement of $400,000
Additionally, seven (7) offers were rejected by plaintiffs, encompassing four cases of Bladder Cancer, one case of Kidney Cancer, one case of Multiple Myeloma, and one case of Kidney Disease. Eight (8) offers have expired, involving three cases of Kidney Cancer, two cases of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, two cases of Bladder Cancer, and one case of Leukemia. Sixteen (16) other settlement offers are currently pending.
Furthermore, the DOJ has endorsed offers for fifty-eight (58) claimants based on information provided by the Navy, with twenty-four (24) of these offers being accepted, two (2) rejected, twenty-five (25) expired, and seven (7) still pending. Payments have been issued for eight accepted settlement offers from the Navy and seven accepted offers from the DOJ, amounting to a total of $3,600,000.
This total includes payments for five cases of Bladder Cancer (two payments of $300,000 and three of $150,000), four cases of Leukemia (three payments of $300,000 and one of $150,000), two cases of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (one payment of $300,000 and one of $150,000), two cases of Parkinson’s Disease (one payment of $400,000 and one of $250,000), one case of Kidney Cancer (a payment of $300,000), and one case of Kidney Disease (a payment of $100,000).
It is time we pronounce the Elective Option plan dead on arrival. We have 170,000 claims.
I think the government now understands this and is looking at different paths to settlement. Certainly, the judges will do everything they can to help push this ball forward. The last thing the court wants is 170,000 lawsuits filed in their district in the next six months.
February 27, 2024 – Updated Statistics
Currently, 1,530 Camp Lejeune lawsuits have been filed under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. Among these, fifteen cases have been dismissed, with twelve being voluntary dismissals and the remaining three being pro se cases. The lawsuits are pretty evenly distributed by the four judges in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
There are approximately 170,502 administrative claims currently on file with the Navy.
February 26, 2024 – Track 2 Diseases Are Set
There has been a lot of speculation over which cancers/diseases would be included in Track 2. We now have the answer:
- Prostate Cancer
- Liver Cancer
- Lung Cancer
- Breast Cancer
- Kidney Disease
We estimate these five conditions make up about 25% of the Camp Lejeune claims that have been made.
The court is quick to point out that the choice of specific cases for early trial is not based on a determination of how strong these claims are one way or the other. Instead, the judges say this selection aims at identifying diseases that, if addressed early in trial settings, could facilitate the settlement of frequently occurring illnesses. The hope is for early settlements or verdicts for certain groups of illnesses, providing quicker resolutions for victims, a goal the judges do seem to have firmly in mind.
The parties are directed to present a discovery plan proposal for the illnesses categorized under Track 2, either together or separately, within ten days following this order.
February 21, 2024 – Motion to Compel Water Modeling Project
The attorneys for Camp Lejeune victims have formally requested that the Court order the production of the ATSDR water modeling project file in its original, native format. They argue that the government’s proposed method of producing the file in pieces, per the electronically stored information (ESI) guidelines, would disrupt its structure and render it essentially non-functional.
What is the water modeling project, and why do you care about it? The Camp Lejeune water modeling project is a scientific endeavor led by the ATSDR to estimate historical water conditions at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina.
This project aimed to address the contamination of drinking water with volatile organic compounds, primarily TCE and PCE, which we talk about below, that occurred between 1957 and 1987. So it is a comprehensive record of the historic contamination levels at Camp Lejeune, containing thousands of files that interlink to form the complete picture of groundwater contamination.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys highlight that the ATSDR was required by law to study this contamination and that their water modeling has proven the presence of toxins in the water supply. The government has agreed to produce the project file but intends to do so in a disassembled form that would break the file’s organization, making it difficult to use. This move is considered contrary to the spirit of the stipulated order and the purpose of maintaining files in a manner that is accessible and usable for those needing the information.
To resolve this, the plaintiffs’ attorneys suggest that the government produce a “mirror” copy of the file in its native format, allowing for a side-by-side comparison with the government’s copy to ensure data integrity. They further argue that the Federal Rules, case law, and common sense support the production of documents in their native format when the functionality of such files is crucial.
The motion concludes by stressing that the ESI Protocol should not prohibit the production of the native project file and that the terms may be amended to accommodate the unique circumstances of this case. Plaintiffs want information and are willing to work with the government and the judges to make it work.
February 20, 2024 – DOJ Response to Motion for Summary Judgment
The DOJ responded yesterday to the motion for summary judgment we discussed in our January 16, 2024 update below. The government argues that it is an overreach to argue that plaintiffs should get compensation by merely proving their presence at Camp Lejeune for 30 days and possessing an illness that the water could cause.
This is still an important motion. But it is important that it was when it was filed. Why? Because in the short term at least, there will not be Camp Lejeune jury trials.
February 14, 2024 – Jury Trials
I think it is fair to say the court’s ruling that there will not be jury trials in this litigation is an unfortunate development.
But there is an upside. Bench trials can go very quickly. We may have multiple trials a week in four different courts. Verdicts put pressure on defendants. If these four judges are fair and award reasonable compensation when warranted, getting many verdicts will pressure the government. Hopefully, this will speed up the path to a better, more inclusive, and more lucrative global settlement offer for Lejeune victims.
February 6, 2024 – No Camp Lejeune Jury Trials
We got our second lousy ruling in the Camp Lejeune litigation today. This one is a big deal.
The court ruled that the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 (CLJA) does not provide plaintiffs the right to a jury trial for actions seeking relief under the Act. Despite the CLJA allowing individuals exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune to bring actions in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the court determined that Congress did not depart from its usual practice of not permitting jury trials against the United States.
The judges believe that CLJA’s text and the principles of sovereign immunity guided the decision, as the Act did not explicitly, affirmatively, and unambiguously grant a right to a jury trial.
The problem with this argument is that the second sentence of subsection 804(d) of the CLJA states that nothing shall impair the right to a jury trial. Please explain to me why they would mention protecting the right to a jury trial if there cannot be a jury trial.
But the court ruled that this unambiguous provision does not to establish a new right to a jury trial but to ensure that the Act does not affect any existing right outside of its provisions.
How about an appeal? That will just slow the process for victims who do not want to wait.
The upside? Faster trials will equal a faster path to a global settlement. And I do think they judges are poised to award millions of dollars if the case warrants such a verdict.
February 3, 2024 – Track One Order
The court has issued an order setting out the steps and deadlines for the Track 1 Discovery Pool – bladder cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Parkinson’s disease. The April trial date the court floated last month is out the window with this order, unfortunately,
Here’s a breakdown of what’s going to happen:
- Discovery Phase:
- The plaintiffs have 45 days from the order to submit detailed information about their cases.
- Both sides have 135 days to exchange all the facts and evidence related to these cases. After this fact-finding period, the plaintiffs and then the government will have set times to tell each other about their expert witnesses
- Motions Before Trial: Once all the information about expert witnesses is exchanged, there’s a 30-day period to file any motions that could decide the case without a trial.
- Planning for Settlement or Trial: The court plans to talk about settlement options through Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) and, most importantly for plaintiffs, plans for some of these cases to go to trial as example cases in 2024.
- Trial Details: Each judge involved will handle the specifics for the Lejeune suits they’re overseeing, and any unique decisions for a case will take priority over this general order. In order words, the judges is how we will do it… unless we change our minds.
This order organizes how the cases will proceed, focusing on gathering and sharing evidence, deciding on expert witnesses, and preparing for possible trials or settlements.
February 2, 2024 – ATSDR Study
The ATSDR study we have been talking about was finally released. The study found that between 1975 and 1985, military personnel at Camp Lejeune were more likely to develop certain cancers compared to those stationed elsewhere. No surprise.
Let’s break down some of the study’s statistics, focusing on the increased incidence rates of certain cancers at Camp Lejeune compared to Camp Pendleton.
The study discusses “hazard ratios” (HRs) and “confidence intervals” (CIs). These indicate how much more likely people at Camp Lejeune were to develop certain cancers compared to those at Camp Pendleton and how confident the researchers are in these findings.
For example, if a hazard ratio (HR) is 1.38 for acute myeloid leukemia, it means that people at Camp Lejeune were 38% more likely to develop this type of cancer than people at Camp Pendleton. The 95% confidence interval” gives a range (like 1.03 to 1.85) that the true hazard ratio is likely to fall within. If this range doesn’t include 1, it suggests the finding is statistically significant – in other words, it’s unlikely to be due to chance.
Here’s what the increased rates looked like for specific cancers at Camp Lejeune:
- Acute myeloid leukemia: 38% more likely
- All myeloid cancers (including polycythemia vera): 24% more likely
- Myelodysplastic and myeloproliferative syndromes: 68% more likely
- Cancers of the esophagus: 27% more likely
- Cancers of the larynx: 21% more likely
- Soft tissue cancers: 21% more likely
- Thyroid cancer: 22% more likely
For civilian workers at Camp Lejeune, the increased rates were:
- All myeloid cancers: 40% more likely
- Squamous cell lung cancer: 63% more likely
- Female ductal breast cancer: 32% more likely
This means that both military personnel and civilian workers at Camp Lejeune had a higher chance of getting these cancers compared to those at Camp Pendleton, where the water was not contaminated. The percentages give an idea of how much higher the risk was.
We told you that more cancers will be in focus after the study. Certainly, this new information will lead to more thyroid cancer lawsuits from Lejeune, which was not really on the radar for most Camp Lejeune lawyers.
What kind of cancers are now in play that might not have been before, at least with some Camp Lejeune lawyers? There are five that come to mind:
- Colon cancer
- Laryngeal Cancer
- Lung Cancer
- Pharyngeal cancer
- Thyroid cancer
February 1, 2024 – Summary Judgment Motion
Judge Myers is giving the government until February 19, 2024, to respond to the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment discussed in our January 26 and 30 updates below.
January 31, 2024 – Case Count Update
There are 1,492 Camp Lejeune lawsuits pending. The administrative count is up to 164,136.
People were predicting over 500,000 claims. Our lawyers projected 150,000 from the beginning. Our revised prediction is there are less than 200,000 claims. What we do not know is how many of these claims are viable. Certainly most claims but not all will be compensable.
January 23, 2024 – Speed Up Litigation Plan
Camp Lejeune attorneys asked the court yesterday to consolidate sixteen toxic water lawsuits based on disease type for trial. This efficient docket management approach would allow the Court to resolve all Track 1 cases with just five trials, reducing the burden on the Court’s calendar and expediting proceedings.
Plaintiffs also gave a length of trial estimate for each type of Track 1 claim:
| Disease | Number of Plaintiffs | Estimated Trial Days |
|---|---|---|
| NHL | 5 | 7 |
| Bladder Cancer | 6 | 6 |
| Kidney Cancer | 8 | 8 |
| Parkinson’s Disease | 5 | 7 |
| Leukemia | 5 | 5 |
Expect the government to push back hard on this request. Consolidated cases will lead to more significant verdicts and more media attention, and the DOJ would rather lay as low as possible in this litigation. [Update: With the jury trial ruling discussed in later updates, the estimated days of trial are now much shorter.]
January 21, 2024 – Push Forward
In many mass torts, the defendants delay, delay, delay, and the plaintiffs’ lawyers are silent co-conspirators, not holding defense attorneys’ feet to the fire to push the litigation forward to get victims the compensation they deserve.
That is not happening in the Camp Lejeune litigation. Attorneys for Lejeune victims are holding the government’s feet to the fire at every turn. In the latest skirmish, plaintiffs’ lawyers are pushing back on the DOJ’s proposal to extend the Track 1 deadline for factual discovery by an additional 90 days.
The plaintiffs’ response points out that in establishing Case Management Order 2, the judges aimed for a swift and efficient discovery process, mainly to handle the expected influx of CLJA cases. Plaintiffs also point out that the necessity for such an extension has become irrelevant. For example, the government’s primary justification for seeking more time was the alleged extensive nature of the plaintiffs’ electronic data requests. However, the plaintiffs have since retracted these requests.
The faster this process moves forward, the longer it will take for the government to offer more global and reasonable Camp Lejeune settlement compensation.
January 18, 2024 – ATSDR Report… Finally
The government plans to release the 2023 ATSDR Cancer Incidence Study publicly this month. Attorneys for Camp Lejeune are retracting their appeal of the order denying the motion to compel this report.
We discuss this report more in the December 22 update below. It could be a good source of evidence for plaintiffs with Tier 2 and Tier 3 claims.
January 17, 2024 – Camp Lejeune Settlement Update
As of yesterday, the DOJ has identified thirty-seven cases in litigation that qualify for the Elective Option (EO) based on document verification. The DOJ is also relying on the Navy and has made 52 more offers. All told, we have thirteen Camp Lejeune settlements out of 89 total offers.
Here is how that looks:
| Injury | Number Accepted | Total Payments | Average Settlement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bladder Cancer | 4 | $750,000 | $197,500 |
| Kidney Cancer | 1 | $300,000 | $300,000 |
| Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma | 1 | $300,000 | $300,000 |
| Kidney Disease | 1 | $100,000 | $100,000 |
| Parkinson’s Disease | 2 | $650,000 | $325,000 |
| Multiple Myeloma | 0 | $0 | $0 |
| Leukemia | 4 | $1,050,000 | $262,500 |
| Total | 13 | $3,150,000 | $242,308 |
The sample size is small. But we will keep an eye on these numbers as we move forward.
For context, the Navy has now settled 13 claims out of the 158,252 claims that have been brought. So we are .008215% of the way to resolution. Again, there has to be a path to speed up this process.
January 3, 2024 – 1,400 Lejeune Civil Cases Filed
From February 11 to December 18, 2023, a total of 1,471 CLJA complaints have been filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Of these, 14 cases have been dismissed, including 11 voluntary dismissals and three pro se cases. The cases are divided among four judges: Judge Dever (363 cases), Judge Myers (379 cases), Judge Boyle (355 cases), and Judge Flanagan (374 cases).
There have also been six Camp Lejeune settlements. The average payout in these settlements is nearly $250,000. The breakdown of these payments includes $250,000 for a case of Parkinson’s Disease, $300,000 for a case of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, two payments of $300,000 each and one payment of $150,000 for three cases of Leukemia, and $150,000 for a case of Bladder Cancer. The remaining two cases await payment processing through the Department of the Treasury’s Judgment Fund.
January 1, 2024 – Both Sides Submit Suggestions for Track 3 Cases
Last week, the Government and the Plaintiffs submitted their proposals for what cases/diseases should be included in the Track 3 trial cases. The government also submitted a motion seeking to amend the most recent Case Management Order to delay various deadlines further.
January 25, 2024 – First Camp Lejeune Trial
A North Carolina federal judge expressed the court is open to the first Camp Lejeune trial as early as April 2024. (Update: completely unrealistic.)
The government is, as you would expect, pushing for more time. The judge also expressed a willingness to try these cases back-to-back. The judges are frustrated at the pace of settlement efforts. An estimated 15% of plaintiffs qualify for the Elective Option. I hope they’re also frustrated with the amount of the settlement offers, too. Because those settlement amounts are not reasonable in these cases.
This puts pressure on the government to develop a better settlement play more quickly.
January 24, 2024 – Government Objects to Speed Up Plan
As predicted yesterday, the government objects to the plan to consolidate lawsuits. It accuses attorneys for Camp Lejeune claimants of using Rule 16 as an excuse to circumvent CMO #2.
Substantively, the government opposes plaintiffs’ views on specific causation and the appropriateness of multi-plaintiff trials at this stage of the litigation. The government also finds the request for a factual directive on causation unprecedented and unfair. Moreover, it claims the proposed timeline for trials post-fact discovery conflicts with CMO #2, which allows 90 days for expert discovery. The government also took this opportunity to complain about the attorneys’ fees issue, arguing that it is slowing up Camp Lejeune settlements.
In a rapid response – you do not typically see this in litigation of any kind – plaintiffs’ attorneys concede they did not consult with the DOJ before filing the statement. But they note there have been past discussions on these issues. Plaintiffs say their proposed new case management procedures aim to expedite individual trials and achieve a global resolution. These proposals, made in the Rule 16 Statement we discussed yesterday, are designed to align with the intent of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.
In other words, plaintiffs are saying, “Look at the big picture. We are doing what should be done to get this litigation where it needs to be.” This is a compelling argument.
January 22, 2024 – Court Rules on Track 1 Discovery Pool
So the court finally ruled in the Camp Lejeune lawyer squabble we discussed in our December 13th update.
The current issue arose from the Track 1 Discovery Pool, which includes bladder cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, Parkinson’s disease, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. One lawyer had initially opted out 56 of his clients from the Track 1 Discovery Pool via an email. Later, he sought to have these clients re-enter the pool, which led to the dispute. The backdrop was a battle between that lawyer and plaintiffs’ leadership, which involved a lot of acrimony, including the F-bomb dropped in an angry email.
The court ultimately sided with leadership, finding that once the Opt-Out Option is exercised, plaintiffs are ineligible for the Track 1 Discovery Pool.
The motions invited the court to weigh in on the merits of the animosity between the warring parties. The court declined to do so. Instead, it decided the issue on the law – once you opt out of the pool, you are out.
January 16, 2024 – Summary Judgment Sought
Camp Lejeune lawyers boldly filed a motion for summary judgment. on general causation in the Camp Lejeune litigation. This would mean that the plaintiff must only show they were on the base for 30 days and they have a condition that is as least as likely as not causally related to toxic water.
Attorneys who are not familiar with this litigation are rolling their eyes. But this toxic water litigation is not like other tort cases. Yes, under normal legal rules, someone suing because of toxic exposure has to prove they were exposed to the substance, that the substance can cause the injury, and that the substance, not something else, caused their specific injury.
The Camp Lejeune law, however, only requires showing that the water is likely to have caused the type of injury they have. This means people don’t have to prove that the water was the specific cause of their individual injury. That is a massive departure from traditional tort law. But it is the law of the litigation.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys argue Congress’ decision to simplify the burden of proof aligns with the text, structure, legislative context, and the statute’s intended purpose. It reflects Congress’s intent to create a distinct framework for causation under the CLJA, diverging from common law. This change is particularly relevant given the challenges in reconstructing exposure circumstances from events occurring decades ago.
Will plaintiffs win this motion? We will see. But lawyers for Camp Lejeune victims have put the government on its heels since Day 1, and we think that will lead to larger settlement amounts for Camp Lejeune victims when all is said and done.
January 13, 2024 – Track One Case Picked
A list of 100 toxic water contamination lawsuits was submitted to the court. One of these cases will be the first Camp Lejeune suit to go to trial.
Again, the Track One cases are bladder cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Parkinson’s disease.
The way the government made its choice was a little goofy due to an unresolved dispute. Lawyers for Camp Lejeune victims asked the court to cancel some choices made by the government about who should be included in a particular group of cases called Track 1 Discovery Pool.
The government thinks it needs to resolve this disagreement and include all 100 cases in the Track One Discovery Pool before it can proceed with the Track One Order. Plaintiffs’ lawyers argue that the government didn’t follow the court’s rules when picking these cases. So, there’s a bit of a disagreement here on how to move forward that must be resolved. But we have 100 names, 50 picked by each side, that are primed to be prepared for trial.
January 10, 2024 – Settlement Conference in Group of 40 Cases
On Wednesday, January 24, 2024, a hearing will occur in Raleigh. The Court will discuss the potential for reaching an intermediate settlement in 40 Camp Lejeune lawsuits. Attorneys are advised to consult with their clients beforehand to assess and clarify their stance on settling the case.
Settlement talk is always good. But we have over 100,000 cases. We cannot settle these suits 40 at a time.
January 9, 2024 – DOJ Warns of Lejeune Fraud
It is awful that people would be so heartless as to victimize the victims. But that is where we are. The Justice Department and the Department of the Navy have issued a fraud alert regarding the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) of 2022. This alert warns individuals about fraudulent attempts to obtain personal information or money from claimants. There have been reports of deceitful individuals and entities trying to extract personal details from CLJA claimants.
It is not too hard to steer clear of this nonsense if you are paying attention. Things you want to keep in mind:
- The Justice Department and Navy will never ask for money from you.
- If you have an attorney, refer all queries to them. If an attorney represents you, the Justice Department and Navy will communicate through your attorney.
- Legitimate emails from the Navy come from CLClaims@us.navy.mil. You can forward suspicious emails to this address for verification.
- If you receive a dubious phone call, request the caller’s name and position and then confirm with the CLCU at (757) 241-6020.
January 5, 2024 – Jury Trial Ruling on Deck
A significant point of contention is whether the Camp Lejeune claims should be tried before a jury. The government argues that the law, known as the PACT Act, which removed government immunity for these claims, does not explicitly grant claimants the right to seek jury trials. However, Plaintiffs’ attorneys assert that the law permits jury trials. This motion is still pending, and we should get a ruling soon.
January 4, 2024 – Only 15% of Claims Eligible for Early Settlement
Bloomberg has an interesting article today looks at preliminary Camp Lejeune data analyzed by SimplyConvert, a data management firm.
The takeaway is that over 85% of individuals seeking compensation for exposure to toxic water at Camp Lejeune might not qualify for the government’s early resolution payouts. This suggests that many of the claims filed could end up in court. This means many victims would die before receiving any payout.
The Navy’s early resolution program, also known as the “Elective Option,” was announced to expedite compensation for veterans by offering payouts between $100,000 and $550,000 to qualifying individuals based on their time at the base and illness. Despite this, more than 1,550 lawsuits have been filed, and the Justice Department’s attorneys have indicated that only a small number of claims currently meet the criteria for expedited payout. That defeats the whole purpose of the Elective Option. The problem with the Elective Option is simply that not enough people qualify, and the settlement offers are too low.
Bloomberg quotes someone who says that the limited options for quick resolutions would primarily benefit plaintiffs’ lawyers, as most plaintiffs would have to undergo lengthy legal processes. What is unexplained is how on earth this would help plaintiffs’ lawyers.
December 26, 2023 – Personal Information from Plaintiffs
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B Jones ordered Camp Lejeune plaintiffs to provide birth dates and Social Security numbers in their short-form water contamination lawsuits.
It is easy to see both sides of this issue. Plaintiffs are understandably reluctant to turn over this information. There are so many scams over social security numbers generally, and specifically, there have been identity theft scams in this litigation. I cannot tell you how many calls we got from people being conned into thinking they could get a quick settlement if they provided their information.
Moreover, the request for birth dates and Social Security numbers does not typically fall under “initial disclosures” as defined in the Federal Rules of Procedure.
But… Judge Jones has a mandate from the North Carolina judges to push these cases forward. So the court wants to do what is necessary to best push the ball forward to expedite the path to the government offering more victims a settlement payout for their suffering. That is the goal here. This information allows the government to investigate claims more quickly. It is hard to argue with this logic.
December 22, 2023 – Judge Rejected Plaintiffs’ Discovery Request
We have the first ruling in the Camp Lejeune litigation that our lawyers believe is just plain wrong. A North Carolina federal magistrate has ruled that plaintiffs in the Camp Lejeune water contamination litigation cannot obtain a draft report from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention subagency – the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease – on a critical report that could have real implications for victims in these lawsuits. As we reported earlier, lawyers for Camp Lejeune victims argue that the report could establish a connection between their exposure to contaminated water at Lejeune. But U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Jones rejected the plaintiffs’ request to access the draft study.
Why? The report is still in draft form and has yet to be thoroughly reviewed by external peers, an allegedly necessary step before it becomes official. The federal government argued that releasing the report prematurely could negatively impact discussions with reviewers and potentially mislead the public if the final version differs significantly. So the court believes the importance of maintaining the integrity of the agency’s peer review process trumps victims’ ability to prove their suffering came from Lejeune.
Let’s be honest. This is not a pressing issue to the “public.” It is a pressing issue for the over 100,000 victims who have brought claims. Congress – who can’t agree on anything – has agreed that this is so important that they would make a special law to allow Camp Lejeune lawsuits. The spirit of that does not allow the defendant to hide information on the harm that it caused.
December 19, 2023 – 257 Lejeune Civil Cases Filed Since October 1st
Since the end of September, 257 civil cases have been filed under the CLJA by Lejeune victims. That is a slight increase in the rate of new Lejeune suits filed in the previous three months.
December 15, 2023 – Response Filed
The plaintiffs’ lawyer at issue in the last paragraph of the December 13th update filed a response. You can read it if you want. This is not a big deal in the general scheme of things, but it is a distraction in compensating victims.
December 13, 2023 – Lejeune Plaintiffs File Motion to Enforce
Lead Camp Lejeune counsel has submitted a motion to enforce Case Management Order No. 2 after frustration with the government’s failure to adhere to agreed-upon procedures in selecting potential bellwether water contamination plaintiffs.
The big beef is that the DOJ has twice selected ineligible plaintiffs for discovery under the criteria established by CMO-2. Again, the first trials may have a massive impact on Camp Lejeune settlement amounts for everyone else. So the details in the fight to bring the best claims to trial are incredibly important.
This motion also brings to the surface some underlying interpersonal conflicts among the Camp Lejeune lawyers. Attorneys in an MDL class action lawsuit – which Camp Lejeune is not but has all of the features of – who are supposed to be on the same team commonly bicker. What is rare is when that infighting is put in front of a judge. Lawyers prefer to hate each other under a cloak of darkness.
In this case, leadership is concerned about the behavior of one Camp Lejeune lawyer and his lack of cooperation and professionalism with the other victims’ lawyers in the toxic water litigation. The fear is that this open hostility could undermine the collective efforts to seek justice for the Camp Lejeune water contamination victims. So leadership is asking the court not to include this lawyer’s clients in the Track 1 Discovery Pool.
December 11, 2023 – DOJ Seeks to Impose Administrative Burdens on Lejune Victims
The government’s lawyers are again frustratingly looking to violate the spirit of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act.
On November 13th, we reported on the Navy lawyers’ position that the U.S. government that plaintiffs must secure an appointment from a court beyond the bounds of North Carolina. They want to force victims to establish an ancillary estate within North Carolina because that is what it would be if this were a Federal Tort Claim Act lawsuit.
That is not what these suits are. So the plaintiffs’ attorneys filed a motion to allow any “legal representative” to bring a claim, which is what the CLJA says.
The government filed a response insisting on maintaining what it seemingly admits is an unnecessary hassle for victims and its lawyers. Its motion argues that before advancing with any Camp Lejeune lawsuit, the appointed representatives must qualify as ancillary administrators under North Carolina law, as mandated by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 17(b)(3).
The government contends that the CLJA does not alter or override the application of the Federal Rules, nor does it provide a unique legal framework that would exempt the case from these established rules. Actually, this whole litigation is a departure from the normal framework, which is precisely what Congress intended.
December 7, 2023 – Plaintiffs Demand Jury Trials
In our November 22nd update, we told you about the Navy asking the court to find that there would be no jury trial in the Camp Lejeune litigation. Plaintiffs responded on Monday, arguing that the Camp Lejeune Justice Act explicitly acknowledges the right to a jury trial, as per Section 804(d) of the Act.
We can all agree that the CLJA was created in response to decades of deception by government officials and aims to provide relief to servicemembers and others exposed to toxic water at Camp Lejeune. The Act sets broad claim eligibility criteria and outlines certain substantive and procedural requirements.
Plaintiffs’ Camp Lejeune lawyers argue in this motion that the Act’s text clearly grants plaintiffs the right to a jury trial, which is supported by Congress’s intent as evident from the statute’s language and context. They argue that the government’s interpretation would render this part of the Act meaningless and counter to fundamental principles of statutory interpretation.
Furthermore, the plaintiffs’ lawyers note that every party, including this court and the Department of Justice, initially recognized the right to jury trials as provided in the CLJA. The document highlights that even the Department of Justice acknowledged the jury-trial right during the legislative process but has since changed its stance. The plaintiffs urge the court to reject the government’s effort to deny Camp Lejeune victims their statutory right – and really their moral right – to a jury trial.
December 5, 2023 – Track 1 Discovery Plaintiff Selection
In a joint motion to the court, the Plaintiffs’ lawyers, along with the government, filed a notice for the selection of Track 1 Discovery Plaintiffs as outlined in section XI(A)(iii) of Case Management Order No. 2. The filing lists plaintiffs chosen by both the Plaintiffs’ Leadership and the Defendant for cases involving various health conditions attributed to the defendant’s actions. Again, these Track 1 health conditions include:
- Bladder Cancer
- Kidney Cancer
- Leukemia
- Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
- Parkinson’s Disease
Each condition category includes a list of selected plaintiffs along with their respective case numbers.
December 4, 2023 – Information Form Approved
The North Carolina judges administering the Camp Lejeune lawsuits approved an information form some plaintiffs must fill out that they are calling a DPPF. If you’re one of the people chosen for early evidence gathering (Track 1 Discovery Plaintiff), you must fill out this DPPF form within 45 days after being chosen or after this rule was made.
Everything you put on the form, the form itself, and any documents or health records you share because of the form must be kept private and treated as confidential under a protective order.
December 1, 2023 – Filed Cases
The distribution of Camp Lejeune lawsuits among the four federal judges in the Eastern District of North Carolina shows a relatively equal allocation. As of the latest count, 1433 Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) complaints have been filed in this district. Of these, fourteen cases have been dismissed, eleven being voluntary dismissals and three involving litigants representing themselves (pro se cases).
Looking at the division of Camp Lejeune lawsuits among the judges:
- Judge Dever is handling 357 cases
- Judge Myers has 370 cases
- Judge Boyle is overseeing 343 cases
- Judge Flanagan has been assigned 363 cases
November 30, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Settlements Update
As of November 27, 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has identified sixteen (16) cases eligible for settlement under the Executive Order (EO) based on documentary evidence. These cases are categorized by the nature of the injuries as follows:
- Five Kidney Cancer
- Four Bladder Cancer
- Three Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma,
- Two Kidney Disease
- One Leukemia
- One Multiple Myeloma
Out of these 16 settlement offers, plaintiffs have rejected two (2), six (6) have expired, and eight (8) are still pending.
The Navy has forwarded 62 administrative claims to the DOJ for approval in accordance with the EO. Currently, 44 of these are under DOJ review. Of the remaining 18, the DOJ has found 13 claimants meet the EO criteria based on information from the Navy and has made settlement offers to them. Four of these 13 contaminated water settlement offers have been accepted, one rejected, and eight are pending.
Regarding the four accepted offers, payments totaling one million dollars have been disbursed. This includes a $250,000 settlement payout for a Parkinson’s Disease case, a $300,000 settlement for non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and two Leukemia cases settled for $300,000 and $150,000.
November 28, 2023 – Track Two Plan Proposal
The plaintiffs’ legal team has submitted a proposed Case Management Order No. 9 to the court. This order outlines the procedures and illnesses to be included in Track 2 – not to be confused with Tier 2 – trials of the lawsuit.
If your case is unlikely to go to trial, why do you care how the Camp Lejeune trial are set up? High verdicts in bellwether trials will significantly impact the settlement amounts of Camp Lejeune lawsuits.
If bellwether trials result in substantial verdicts for the plaintiffs, that puts more pressure on the DOJ, and it will be more inclined to offer higher settlement payouts to avoid the risk and expense of trial.
Key aspects of the proposed order include:
- Illness Selection for Track 2 Trials: The plaintiffs propose that Track 2 trials should focus on cases alleging that the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune caused specific illnesses: kidney disease, multiple myeloma, liver cancer, sclerosis/scleroderma, and plastic anemia. This selection is based on illnesses with established scientific links to water contamination, as identified by significant government studies, and aims to expedite the resolution process for common illnesses.
- Defendant’s Elective Option Settlements: The defendant has previously offered settlements for all the proposed illnesses except aplastic anemia. The plaintiffs argue that focusing on these illnesses will enable more efficient progress through discovery and trials, leading to quicker resolutions.
- Disagreement on Proposed Conditions: The defendant proposes conditions for Track 2 trials that they believe have weaker causal connections to the Camp Lejeune water toxins. Because they want a defense verdict that will scare victims into settlement. These conditions are not part of the defendant’s Elective Option settlements, and no offers have been made for cases involving these conditions. Those are the wrong cases to go to trial.
- Procedures for Track 2 Trials: The plaintiffs propose procedures similar to those in Case Management Order No. 2 for Track 1 diseases, emphasizing efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
In other news, the plaintiffs have learned of a new study by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) that potentially expands the list of illnesses linked to the Camp Lejeune water. The plaintiffs have requested access to this study, but the Navy has denied it.
Why? It claims it is… privileged. Which is insane. Shouldn’t the government want all of the truth to come out? Was that not the purpose of CLJA?
November 27, 2023 – Government Wants Yet Another Extension
The government wants two more months to finalize the Track 1 discovery. Plaintiffs’ lawyer opposed the motion.
The government says that the cause of the slowdown in the discovery phase stems from the defendant’s intricate bureaucratic system. The government uses this complexity – that we all know exists – as a sword to seek more delays, wasting time victims do not have. Plaintiffs claim that the government uses this to hinder the plaintiff’s leadership in securing essential documents and witnesses, protracting the legal process.
The appropriate response to this bureaucratic entanglement is not a further postponement of the case but holding the government’s feet to the fire to urge the various departments to expedite their actions. We all know the government can move faster when it wants to.
- If you have a comment or a question, ask below, and we will try to answer you as quickly as possible.
- More thoughts on the Camp Lejeune settlement offer
November 26, 2023 – Case Count
The latest Lejeune case count is just over 129,000 filed claims with the DOJ.
November 24, 2023 – Tuesday’s Status Conference
At the status conference on Tuesday, the parties discussed the status of stipulations, discovery, settlement, and future conferences. New orders from the court outline the protocols for discovery disputes and electronic discovery.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!
November 22, 2023 – DOJ Seeks to Block Jury Trials
Someone at the JAG office had a crazy idea. Instead of laughing it off, the government filed a motion.
So the JAG filed a motion to block the possibility of jury trials for complaints regarding water contamination at Camp Lejeune.
In its motion, the government argued that the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, under which these lawsuits are filed, does not explicitly grant the right to a jury trial when suing the federal government.
The government cited the act’s language, which does not “affirmatively and unambiguously” establish jury rights, as required by Supreme Court precedent. The government compared the act to the Federal Tort Claims Act, which permits lawsuits against the government but generally excludes jury trials.
I think the North Carolina judges will think this is ridiculous.
November 21, 2023 – DOJ Gets Extension on Motion Response
Yesterday, the court granted the U.S. government an extension to respond to a motion challenging its interpretation of legal representation under the CLJA in relation to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The government’s stance is that to be a “legal representative” for FTCA-related claims, an individual must be appointed by a court outside North Carolina and also establish an ancillary estate within the state.
This requirement stems from the FTCA’s provision that state law, specifically North Carolina law in this context, governs the designation of representatives in wrongful death cases. This process has proven to be a significant burden, and few plaintiffs have complied.
Consequently, plaintiffs have filed a motion arguing that the CLJA, not the FTCA, should apply. Section 804(b) of the CLJA stipulates that a “legal representative” is authorized to initiate a lawsuit, challenging the government’s more restrictive interpretation.
November 20, 2023 – Status Conference Tomorrow
There is a status conference at 4:00 p.m. tomorrow.
November 19, 2023 – Court Approves 3% Assessment
The court will approve the 3% Camp Lejeune attorney’s fees assessment. This comes out of your lawyer’s pocket, not yours.
November 14, 2023 – New Camp Lejeune Attorneys’ Fees
We are now charging 20-25% in new Camp Lejeune lawsuits. I don’t think many people are still sitting on the fence at this point, but if you have a claim, call us.
We are taking all types of injuries but are drilling down on these:
| Condition | Tier |
|---|---|
| Kidney Cancer | Tier 1 |
| Liver Cancer | Tier 1 |
| Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma | Tier 1 |
| Leukemias | Tier 1 |
| Bladder Cancer | Tier 1 |
| Multiple Myeloma | Tier 1/2 |
| Parkinson’s Disease | Tier 1/2 |
| Kidney Disease / End-Stage Renal Disease | Tier 1/2 |
| Systemic Sclerosis / Systemic Scleroderma | Tier 1/2 |
The government is making settlement offers that are not reasonable in these cases. We think most plaintiffs in these cases are better served fighting for a higher settlement payout.
November 13, 2023 – Rules for Wrongful Death Claims
The U.S. government maintains that for someone to act as a “legal representative” under the CLJA for claims related to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), they must not only be appointed by a court outside North Carolina but also open an ancillary estate in North Carolina. This position is based on the FTCA, which dictates that state law (in this case, North Carolina law) applies to determining the appropriate representative in wrongful death cases.
This is a huge hassle, and few plaintiffs have done it. So, the plaintiffs have filed a motion that basically says this is not the FTCA; this is the CLJA. Section 804(b) of the CLJA authorizes a “legal representative” to file a lawsuit. Plaintiffs’ Camp Lejeune attorneys argue that based on standard definitions and legal precedent, this term refers to a person appointed to manage a decedent’s estate. This interpretation is consistent with the statute’s language, which does not explicitly align the definition of “legal representative” with North Carolina law, nor does it set prerequisites for filing a CLJA action.
Furthermore, plaintiffs argue that even if there were any ambiguities in the CLJA regarding the meaning of “legal representative,” applying FTCA provisions would be inappropriate. The FTCA does not extend to federal causes of action like those under the CLJA or to injuries suffered by servicemembers during service. The CLJA, distinct from the FTCA, has its own unique federal standards, including a waiver of sovereign immunity in Section 804(b), indicating that the FTCA should not be generally applicable to CLJA actions. The government’s interpretation that the CLJA merely eliminates specific defenses against FTCA actions is inaccurate, as the CLJA significantly deviates from FTCA in various aspects, including liability standards and procedural elements.
Moreover, the CLJA, however, establishes a federal cause of action. Accordingly, North Carolina law is not relevant in determining who qualifies as a legal representative.
Therefore, while it would be a great jobs program for North Carolina estate lawyers and an excellent way for the DOJ to slow the litigation, plaintiffs’ lawyer convincingly argues that the necessity to open an ancillary estate in North Carolina for a CLJA action is not supported by law.
November 11, 2023 – Three Camp Lejeune Settlements
The U.S. Department of Justice reports that three individuals have agreed to settlement amounts totaling $ 850,000. Two of the three claimants have received their settlement payments.
November 7, 2023 – $100 Million Demand
A new Camp Lejeune lawsuit was filed today that demanded $100 million.
This underscores that the government’s calculation of $3.3 trillion in to settlement demands does not, as interesting as it is, meaningfully contribute to the conversation.
November 6, 2023 – Status Conference Cancelled
The Camp Lejeune Status Conference originally scheduled for November 7, 2023, has been cancelled. The next Camp Lejeune Status Conference is now scheduled for November 21, 2023.
Twice a week is a lot. You will probably see a lot of these conferences get canceled.
October 31, 2023 – Joint Status Report Submitted
On Friday, Camp Lejeune lawyers gave the court a status report on their settlement talks so far. The court had previously asked both parties to come up with a plan to resolve the issue and report back on their discussions.
They’ve been designing a detailed questionnaire to gather the necessary information from those affected. This is to determine the extent of the harm and calculate appropriate compensation. Their current focus is on the most immediate and severe cases. They’re also figuring out what kinds of documents or evidence are needed to back up the information provided in the questionnaires, and they’re deciding which side should provide these documents.
Both sides are also working on a system to put a value on each claim. To manage all this data, they’re looking for a tech vendor to set up a secure database. However, there have been some disagreements, particularly about sharing certain types of data. While the plaintiffs’ lawyers believe this data could speed things up, the government is more cautious due to privacy reasons.
So the government and the Camp Lejeune plaintiffs’ lawyers are trying to find a mutual ground to clear a path to settle a large number of these toxic water lawsuits. They’ve made some headway but there is still a lot of work to be done.
October 29, 2023 – $3.33 Trillion Demand for 117,000 Lejeune Claims
The Department of Justice reports that the total amount demanded for the approximately 117,000 administrative claims currently filed with the Department of Navy is nearly $3.3 trillion.
The DOJ knows this is not a real number but speculates by way of example that it could be 1%. How much is that? $33 billion.
Does this really mean anything? No. But it is interesting to see the government speculate on how many billions the Camp Lejeune settlement will ultimately be.
October 27, 2023 – 3% Holdback Requested
The Court has ordered, in Case Management Order #7, that a 3% holdback be taken from the attorneys’ fees in the Camp Lejeune lawsuit to compensate the leadership for their work on these cases.
This will not have any impact on the fee you pay your lawyer. This comes out of your lawyer’s attorneys’ fees.
October 26, 2023 – Update on Camp Lejeune Lawsuits’ Document Handling
In the ongoing Camp Lejeune lawsuits against the government, a new case management order was put out this week to ensure the protection of privileged information. Key points include:
1. No waiver of attorney-client or other legal privileges, even if information is mistakenly disclosed.
2. Parties can withhold documents that have these privileges.
3. If privileged documents are accidentally shared, the receiving party must notify the producing side and return or destroy them.
4. Disagreements over privileged documents can be submitted to the Court for resolution.
Are these details important to victims? No. But they show the continued progression of the Camp Lejeune litigation.
October 25, 2023 – EPA Calls For Ban on Use of TCE
Trichloroethylene (TCE) is an industrial chemical that was one of the primary pollutants in the water supply at Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987. This week, the EPA proposed new regulations that would completely ban the use of TCE for all purposes due to overwhelming evidence that exposure to the chemical can cause cancer and other health issues. TCE has been directly linked to Parkinson’s disease, as well as liver, kidney, and cervical cancer.
October 23, 2023 – First Status Conference Hearing Set in Civil Cases
There’s a kickoff meeting set for Monday, October 30th, at 11:00 AM in Room 209, 201 South Evans St, Greenville, NC for the Camp Lejeune class action lawsuit (that is not really a class action lawsuit). Similar meetings will take place on the first and third Tuesdays of every month at 10:00 a.m.
In this initial meeting, Camp Lejeune lawyers will discuss with the judge overseeing the Camp Lejeune litigation:
- The number and status of CLJA actions filed here.
- The status of claims with the Department of Navy.
- Recent agreements made between the involved parties.
- Information shared or gathered since our last catch-up.
- Progress on finding a solution, either for individual cases or the whole bunch.
- Any other topics or issues the groups want to cover.
October 18, 2023 – First Camp Lejeune Settlement
There is an unconfirmed report of the first Camp Lejeune settlement. The terms are not disclosed due to confidentiality. We will confirm this and report back.
October 10, 2023 – New Civil Filings Increase
A month has passed since the Navy and DOJ announced the Camp Lejeune early settlement program. The program offers eligible claimants the option of accepting an immediate settlement payout. So what impact did this new settlement option have on the volume of new civil case filings under the CLJA?
Rather than have a chilling effect on new filings, the settlement program actually appears to have prompted a spike in new cases. In the month before the settlement program (August), only 50 new Camp Lejeune civil cases were filed. In the month after the program was announced, that number jumped up to 193, an increase of 300%.
October 9, 2023 – Master Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Filed
A master complaint was filed in the Camp Lejeune litigation on Saturday.
A caster complaint is a comprehensive document filed in court that consolidates and lays out all common allegations to every lawsuit and claims of the plaintiffs in an MDL or a class action lawsuit. This is not a class action lawsuit but, more and more, it is functioning as one.
So with a master complaint, instead of having each plaintiff file an individual complaint laying out all the relevant facts, a master complaint captures the shared grievances and factual allegations in one unified document. It makes it easier for plaintiffs to file a lawsuit and it leads to the burning of fewer trees in the process.
We summarize the master Camp Lejeune complaint and link to it if you want to read it.
October 2, 2023 – Three Tracks
The judges’ order organizes the discovery and trials into distinct “tracks” to facilitate a comprehensive resolution of all claims. This involves the establishment of three separate tracks, namely Track 1, Track 2, and Track 3, to address various categories of claims.
We know what is in track one now: non-Hodgkin lymphoma liver cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, and Parkinson’s disease. But what will be in Tracts 2 and 3 and when will that be decided? We do not know yet. Our attorneys are convinced that many of these so-called “Tier 2” and “Tier 3” cases will be viable at trial.
September 28, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Trials Will Start Next Year
While thousands of Camp Lejeune claimants are weighing whether to participate in the recently announced early settlement program, the court overseeing those Lejeune cases in litigation has stated that trials will begin next year.
To make the trial process more efficient, the Camp Lejeune trials will be divided into different “tracks” with each track covering a group of specific diseases. Track 1 will include Non-Hodgkin lymphoma liver cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, and Parkinson’s disease.
These happen to be the same diseases that are included in “Tier 1” of the early settlement program, with the exception of Parkinson’s which is in Tier 2 of the settlement program (even though it should be Tier 1).
September 23, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Settlement Offer
I do not believe the settlement payouts offered by the government we discussed in the September 6, 2023 Update below are good settlement offers, at least not for most victims. But I’m surprised at how receptive clients have been to these offers. More people than I thought just want to get this over with.
I’m also surprised by this 35-year latency period rule to be eligible for this first round of settlement. The government does not realize – we did not realize until this came out – how many people will be excluded by this rule which runs counter to its goal of reducing the claim count with this settlement offer.
There is no solid science to support this rule. It is not in the CLJA either. I think the government will eventually drop this requirement.
September 20, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Attorneys’ Fees
The government has moved to cap legal fees in the Camp Lejeune toxic water cases, aiming to restrict lawyers from gaining potentially vast sums from settlements. Attorney General Merrick Garland is personally involved in his decision.
Shortly after unveiling an early resolution program to speed up compensation for those affected by the contamination, the Navy and Justice departments amended the program, setting lawyers’ fees at 20% for administrative settlements and 25% for litigation payouts.
There will be fierce opposition with billions of dollars at stake. Some Camp Lejeune lawyers will argue this is not in the statute and the Attorney General does not have the power.
What is our law firm’s position on this? We do not have one. Our lawyers will never take a position against our client’s interests (or victims of this tragedy that are not our clients, for that matter). If you have a Tier 1 case, it is good news for most of you. Tier 1 victims will walk away with more money under this plan. The concern is the other toxic water cases that are harder to prove but we think are linked will get dropped.
September 16, 2023 – Leadership Challenge Fails
The efforts over the last few weeks to start over again in developing Camp Lejeune leadership failed miserably. The court denied the effort to restructure the plan the court put in place selecting Camp Lejeune lawyers to lead the way on core discovery and other efforts to ramp up this litigation.
September 14, 2023 – Settlement and Leadership Structure
The government notified the North Carolina judges of its settlement offer for Camp Lejeune, which mostly involved filing a form motion attaching the offer it put out.
Meanwhile, the attorney leadership structure battle continues as a reply motion was filed for the motion asking the judge to reconsider the entire structure of the team in place to help all plaintiffs’ lawyers push the ball forward.
The motion gets into some really goofy stuff, like complaining that we are already seeing the lack of transparency because there is a husband and wife from separate firms in leadership, and someone else on the steering committee is the son of the liaison counsel. (Yes, it is an incestuous world of mass torts.)
The motion will fail. Everyone needs to be focused on pushing cases to trial and getting the claims settled that can be settled instead of these red herrings.
September 13, 2023 – Legal Action Over Lejeune Attorney Solicitations
A federal judge in West Virginia declined this week a motion by a law firm to appeal his order concerning the dismissal of a Telephone Consumer Protection Act lawsuit against it. As we mention below, the lawsuit stemmed from unsolicited calls from Camp Lejeune lawyers seeking new clients. The judge determined that the act applied to a woman using her cell phone primarily for residential use.
The judge asserted that it was premature to appeal his decision, which maintained that the telemarketing calls to the woman were valid under the TCPA, especially since she had listed her number on the national do-not-call registry. The basis of the law firm’s appeal was the woman’s assertion that her cellphone was equivalent to a “residential telephone subscriber” under the TCPA. If validated, businesses would be restricted from soliciting calls to her number. However, despite varying interpretations in other courts, the judge referred to Federal Communications Commission regulations, emphasizing that ‘wireless telephone numbers’ are indeed considered ‘residential telephone subscribers.’
There is no question there was anger about the marketing for clients for these claims.
September 7, 2023 – More Settlement Offer Thoughts
As we said yesterday, our lawyers think few will jump on this settlement offer. Why? The settlement payouts are just too low.
But are there some claims where this settlement makes sense? Yes. Cases with limited exposure at Lejeune and other risk factors for the disease that would make the case hard to prove at trial might consider the offer.
For example, if you were at Camp Lejeune for only 30 days, your bladder cancer was diagnosed 30 years later, and you smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, proving that the contaminated water at Lejeune was a substantial contributing cause of your cancer might be challenging. Your case might do better under this kind of rough justice settlement formula.
How many toxic water claims will have a fact pattern like this? Probably not enough to allow the government to meet its goal of significantly reducing the number of claims.
The DOJ should sweeten the pot to make the choice more complicated for more victims because these settlement numbers do not do that.
September 6, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Settlements
The government has introduced a settlement program, offering compensation of up to $450,000 to individuals, including Camp Lejeune veterans, who claim they were harmed by contaminated water at the North Carolina Marine base.
Is this a good Camp Lejeune settlement offer? No. But it may be an attractive option in a minority of these claims depending on the facts of the case.
So what is this about? The government needs to reduce the total number of claims to something more manageable. So they dangle a quick settlement to knock back the numbers. To some extent, it will work.
This initiative aims to resolve potentially hundreds of thousands of claims more swiftly, as over 93,000 claims have already been filed, and some affected veterans have expressed frustration with the slow claims process. This will speed up the process and get your money faster… if you are willing to take what may be much less than your case is likely worth.
Under the plan, eligible claimants will receive settlements based on their specific illnesses and the duration of their stay at the base, covering various conditions like cancer, kidney disease, and Parkinson’s.
For example, a veteran with over five years at the base who developed kidney cancer could receive $450,000. As a practical matter, few were there for more than five years. So someone who spent less than a year there and later suffered from kidney cancer would also receive $150,000. If the person was at Lejeune between one year and five years, it would be $300,000.
For a Tier 2 case, the top goes down to $400,000, the ceiling goes to $100,000, and that midlevel (1-5 years) would be $250,000.
Wrongful death claims would receive an additional $100,000.
These are the tiers eligible for this toxic water settlement:
| Disease | Qualifying Injury |
|---|---|
| Kidney Cancer | Tier 1 |
| Liver Cancer | Tier 1 |
| Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma | Tier 1 |
| Leukemias | Tier 1 |
| Bladder Cancer | Tier 1 |
| Multiple Myeloma | Tier 2 |
| Parkinson’s Disease | Tier 2 |
| Kidney Disease / End-Stage Renal Disease | Tier 2 |
| Systemic Sclerosis / Systemic Scleroderma2 | Tier 2 |
Does it make sense to dump all Tier 1 and Tier 2 cases into two big pots like this? No. The DOJ does not think this is anything but rough and quick justice.
So this plan does not aim to make distinctions in the severity of various illnesses. The biggest reason is time. Evaluating the severity of an illness involves a thorough and time-consuming process, and the government is willing to skip this part for those who want a Camp Lejeune settlement more quickly.
So the government reasons that assigning varying values to different illness types based on severity is too time-consuming during the initial administrative claim phase. They are not wrong, this will likely be much faster for people who want to settle now… but they cannot expect most victims to take a smaller compensation payout than they deserve. That is our initial take on this whole thing. We are happy with the effort at progress, but the settlement calculations are just too low for most victims.
Our Camp Lejeune lawyers are digging into this. We wanted to get this out to you quickly. We will let you know when we know more.
September 5, 2023 – DOJ Seeks Extension for Response
The Department of Justice (DOJ) wants more time to respond to Camp Lejeune lawsuits. Again. They are asking for an extension until October 2, 2023. Plaintiffs’ lawyers do not oppose the request.
The DOJ and plaintiffs’ Camp Lejeune attorneys have had meetings to plan how to handle the cases and submitted their plan to the four judges on August 28, 2023. The Court previously gave the DOJ until October 2, 2023, to respond to some instances, but this doesn’t cover cases where the DOJ has already responded. They’re asking for the deadline for ongoing investigations to be extended to October 2, 2023, to match the case management plan that has been jointly proposed.
September 4, 2023 – Immature Claims
According to the recently filed joint report, one reason the plaintiffs have been unable to agree with the government on how to proceed is that the DOJ is characterizing the Lejeune cases as “immature torts” (i.e., cases in their infancy and not fully developed).
Our lawyers think the DOJ is acting in good faith in these claims. It wants to do the right thing, and we think it will. But this is a poor choice of words and is clearly a stalling tactic on the part of the DOJ. There is nothing “immature” about the Camp Lejeune water contamination claims. Former marines and their families are dying as we wait for fair settlement compensation offers for Camp Lejeune victims.
September 1, 2023 – What Diseases Will Be Included In The First Trial Group?
Earlier this week we got the first significant movement in the consolidated Camp Lejeune litigation. The parties submitted a joint status report on Wednesday explaining to the court that they agreed on most of the procedures and protocols for the litigation (which essentially mirror MDL procedures).
However, the Plaintiffs and the government have been unable to agree on two key issues: (1) the method of selecting plaintiffs for trials, and (2) the timeframe for discovery and trials. Both sides agree that the cases should be divided into groups or “tracks” based on the type of disease alleged by the plaintiff. What they don’t agree on is what disease should be included in “Track 1.”
The plaintiffs want to include: (1) bladder cancer, (2) kidney cancer, (3) leukemia, (4) Parkinson’s disease, and (5) non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in Track 1. The government only wants to include (1) kidney cancer, (2) leukemia, and (3) Parkinson’s disease in this first group. Why is this significant? The main significance of this is that cases included in Track 1 will almost certainly settle faster. It is also significant because the diseases included in Track 1 are clearly those that are most strongly linked to the water contamination at Camp Lejeune.
August 29, 2023 – Which Camp Lejeune Lawsuits Get Tried First?
Camp Lejeune leadership responded to the motion to overthrow the leadership order in these lawsuits. Their argument, and it is a strong one, is that for over 60 years, federal courts have used the Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 42(a) to appoint lead counsel for complex cases with multiple plaintiffs.
The Manual for Complex Litigation supports this practice in all complex cases, MDL designated or not. Given the scope of this case, which involves potentially thousands of plaintiffs and requires long-term interactions with the U.S. government, the Court’s decision to have a leadership structure is the only practical solution.
August 28, 2023 – Which Camp Lejeune Lawsuits Get Tried First?
When this litigation started, there was a big rush to be the first to file a lawsuit, and there were a lot of skirmishes over whether cases that were filed in the last Camp Lejeune litigation could skip ahead of the line (they couldn’t). The reason for the rush was the hopes of being the first lawsuits to go to trial.
But the North Carolina judges are signaling that the first trials will be the cases the court and the parties believe are the most representative of the group of plaintiffs.
August 21, 2023 – New Camp Lejeune Website
Our law firm’s goal here is to bring some transparency to a process that is sometimes anything but transparent.
We will be getting some welcomed competition. A public website, launching this week, will update on the ongoing Camp Lejeune litigation. The Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group will use this website to regularly inform the Court, lawyers, plaintiffs, and the public.
August 19, 2023 – New Civil Filings Slow Down
There are now 1,130 Camp Lejeune civil cases pending in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
However, the pace of new civil filings under the CLJA has slowed significantly over the last two months. Only 34 new Lejeune cases have been filed in August, and the month is halfway over. That puts us on the same pace we saw in July when 51 new cases were filed.
This could indicate that Camp Lejeune lawyers and their clients are now more hopeful that an effective process for settling claims before filing suit is around the corner. (Or it could be that many lawyers are swamped filing the 93,000 plus administrative claims that have been filed.)
August 17, 2023 – Objection to Path to Consolidation
A South Carolina law firm has filed a motion seeking reconsideration of the court’s July 19, 2023, Leadership Order that granted wide-ranging authority to various leadership committees related to the Camp Lejeune docket.
The objection argues that the order allows for decision-making rights on the entirety of the Camp Lejeune litigation and, to some extent, takes away individual Camp Lejeune lawyers’ input into their clients’ cases, potentially infringing upon their rights.
So these lawyers argue that forcing the parties to consolidate under the ordered leadership structure without an actual MDL is in violation of well-established law. The motion suggest consolidation under Federal Rule 23 as a more proper and viable path.
The court has already pointed out the elasticity of Rule 16. The chances of this motion being granted approaches zero.
August 15, 2023 – Case Count
A spokesperson for the Department of the Navy released comments about the Camp Lejeune claims process that were published over the weekend in a CNN story. In an email to CNN, the Navy spokesperson said that over 93,000 CLJA claims have been received to date. The Navy says that is has now started processing 17,000 of those claims and is seeking to expedite the process. Meanwhile, the Navy says that it is working with the DOJ to develop an “early resolution framework” for resolving CLJA claims. While these comments are encouraging, they fall short of giving us any concrete time frame for when to expect things to happen.
August 12, 2023 – Deadlines Extended Until September 1st
The Camp Lejeune judges have extended all deadlines for responsive pleadings, discovery, and all other associated timelines in every Camp Lejeune Justice Act case to September 1, 2023. This extension aims to provide the parties time to present a comprehensive case management order to the court.
August 10, 2023 – Legislation Anniversary
Today is the one-year anniversary of the law allowing victims to file a lawsuit to seek a Camp Lejeune settlement.
August 4, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Settlement Update
If you are looking for substantive Camp Lejeune settlement information… there is none. But the now 75,000 administratively filed cases seem to have a clearer path to settlement than just a few months ago. The general feeling from many Camp Lejeune lawyers is that the DOJ is now on a path to making settlement offers. That was not the sentiment back in April. Will those offers be reasonable in light of these horrific diseases? That remains to be seen.
The cases that have the best chance of early settlement are the claims with injuries that the government will likely concede are related to the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune:
Parkinson’s Disease
Kidney Cancer
Liver Cancer
Bladder Cancer
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Leukemia
Multiple Myeloma
Scleroderma/Systemic Sclerosis
Cardiac Birth Defects
There will almost certainly be Camp Lejeune settlements for other injuries, maybe even in the first round of settlements. But these will be easier cases to settle and will likely be the ones that resolve first.
August 1, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Litigation Consolidation
Plaintiffs’ counsel and JAG have jointly requested an extension of all individual case deadlines until September 1, 2023, while they work on a proposed Global Case Management Order. The parties have been actively working together to resolve the matter and have discussed important aspects such as global case management, the creation of a database, and streamlining document requests.
The extension will allow them to focus on proposing a process for master pleadings that would cover all cases. They plan to submit the proposed Global Case Management Order by August 28, 2023.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers want to help the government conserve resources to advance the ball towards being able to evaluate these cases for settlement.
July 28, 2023 – Slow Lawsuit Month
Only 39 new Camp Lejeune civil lawsuits have been filed in court this month, which is a continuation of the downward trend in the volume of CLJA cases filed each month since the first claimants became eligible back in February. There were 693 Camp Lejeune civil cases filed in March, with nearly 200 filed on a single day.
Only 100 cases were filed in April, followed by 96 in May and 43 in June. Meanwhile, the latest reports from JAG indicate that over 65,000 administrative claims have been filed.
So why haven’t we seen more CLJA lawsuits? It’s probably because many Lejeune victims and their lawyers opt to let their claims sit on the sidelines to see if JAG starts making settlement offers.
While the pace of new lawsuits has slowed, more claims continue to be filed administratively this month.
July 21, 2023 – Lawyers Sued for Lejeune Marketing Tactics
At least three different law firms are now facing civil lawsuits accusing them of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) with unsolicited robocalls aimed at obtaining Camp Lejeune cases. 2 firms based in West Virginia were sued earlier this year, and their motion to dismiss the case was recently denied. Another New York firm was sued just this week in a putative class action for TCPA violations related to its Camp Lejeune marketing.
July 17, 2023 – Over 1,000 CLJA Civil Lawsuits Pending
Since the first Camp Lejeune victims became eligible to file civil lawsuits under the CLJA in February, 1,067 cases have been filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina. That is actually more than the total number of civil cases filed in that district in 2022.
July 14, 2023 – What Have We Learned About the Camp Lejeune Lawsuit?
This “what have we learned?” has become a regular feature. It has been nearly seven months since the Camp Lejeune Justice Act became law. What have we learned, and where is this litigation going in 2023?
Things have moved slowly this summer to the frustration of Camp Lejeune victims. The government needs a clear plan to administer Camp Lejeune claims. The JAG is getting closer. The six-month administrative period bought the DOJ time. But there needs to be a plan to evaluate Camp Lejeune claims for settlement. Even the otherwise sympathetic judges in North Carolina are getting frustrated with the JAG’s pace of managing this litigation.
Is the stalling tactical? Defense lawyers in a normal case would be looking to push getting serious about settling claims until after the statute of limitations has passed. So all this could be a plan to push off any trial dates until August 2024 when it can Camp Lejeune settlements.
This would serve two purposes for the government. First, it can offer settlement amounts next summer knowing how many claims there are. Second, they can rest assured that big settlement numbers will now spawn more claims.
As a starting point, we need a process so the JAG can even accept medical and service records. But that is step one. The more significant hurdle for the government is having a team in place to evaluate those records and formulate a settlement offer.
So, regrettably, the initial hope of the government offering early Camp Lejeune settlement payouts for victims and their families has faded. Maybe the JAG lawyers are not stalling and would love to make settlement offers to reduce the number of claims. But the staffing is not yet there to administer all these claims. We still have hope for Camp Lejeune settlements in 2023. But, honestly… our guess is more 2024 at this point.
Over 45,000 Camp Lejeune water contamination claims had already been filed. We see new lawsuits being filed almost daily.
Our attorneys hear conflicting estimates of how many Camp Lejeune victims have signed retainers from other Camp Lejeune attorneys. Those estimates range from 75,000 to 110,000 Camp Lejeune victims that have already signed retainers with lawyers. Many of these clients have signed retainers with multiple Camp Lejeune lawyers so that will also be a mess that needs to be untangled.
How many more Lejeune claims will we see? It is hard to predict. There is a reason why your television is no longer flooded with Lejeune commercials. We are seeing 10% of the volume of new potential Camp Lejeune lawsuits we saw in June. Yes, there are a lot of victims with solid claims that have not found a lawyer. But, internally, our lawyers assume that we already have the lion’s share of clients we will represent in this litigation.
July 5, 2023
The latest Camp Lejeune news is that the claim count is now over 70,000 administrative claims.
This is the updated list of our law firm’s Camp Lejeune lawsuits ranked by how many claims we have for each injury or sickness:
Bladder Cancer
Other Cancer
Neurobehavioral
Soft Tissue Cancer
Hodgkin’s Disease
June 26, 2023
As expected, U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle upheld the Navy’s right to maintain its affirmative defenses in filed in answer to 122 water contamination lawsuits. Judge Boyle attributed the apparent vagueness in these defenses to what is admittedly a similar lack of specificity in the plaintiffs’ complaints. So Judge Boyle essentially ruled what is good for the goose is good for the gander. So the government gets a pass on its excessive over-pleading of defenses in its answers to the Camp Lejeune lawsuits. Of course, and the judge made this clear, plaintiffs can move to dismiss these defenses later in the litigation process if found insufficient.
The ruling was issued following a hearing concerning motions to strike the government’s defenses. During the hearing, the court heard from 122 plaintiffs, represented by six Camp Lejeune attorneys, who claimed the government’s defenses were lacking in detail and contained “prominent pitfalls” in violation of civil procedure rules. The government countered this by arguing – again, fairly – that its defenses were broad because the plaintiffs’ complaints lacked detail.
The government’s defenses involved claims that the plaintiffs failed to state a claim, that a dry cleaner may have caused the contamination, and that despite the plaintiffs’ knowledge of the poisoned water, they continued its consumption. The last one is particularly ridiculous and will never be argued at trial.
The was zero chance the court was going to rule otherwise. But Camp Lejeune lawyers are keeping pressure on the government while working cooperatively with them towards a path to a water contamination settlement.
June 22, 2023 – Plaintiffs Challenge “Barebones” Defenses
At a recent court proceeding, over 120 plaintiffs argued that the U.S. government had delivered insufficient “barebones” responses to lawsuits that accuse the government of poisoning people through the water supply at Camp Lejeune Marine base. They ask the judge to discard these defenses.
The government also seems to think Camp Lejeune lawsuits are ordinary negligence lawsuits. But plaintiffs’ attorneys are not filing negligence lawsuits, they are filing lawsuits under the new law that allows these claims. The government claims that most Camp Lejeune lawsuits lack specifics (which is true) so the suits’ lack of detailed information necessitates generalized responses.
June 21, 2023 – DOJ Wants Quick Process
The Department of Justice has called on federal judges in North Carolina to hasten their plans to manage the growing number of lawsuits concerning water contamination at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. Without a comprehensive plan, the government faces the challenging task of individually responding to 663 separate lawsuits, contributing to one of the largest mass litigations in history.
The judges overseeing the cases proposed a consolidation process, but Judge Terrence Boyle has decided to proceed with his cases, causing some tension. As they await a final decision on consolidation, the government has already filed responses in 198 Camp Lejeune lawsuits.
June 19, 2023 – Claim Count
The claim count is now 65,000 administrative claims.
June 4, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Class Action
There is some confusion over whether there is a Camp Lejeune class action lawsuit. There is not. Each of these claims stands on its own and will – if it comes to it – go to trial alone. But it is hard to underscore what a challenge this litigation is for the government and the courts. So the cases have been consolidated for pretrial discovery to avoid confusion and duplication of efforts.
We have been on Camp Lejeune claims from the very beginning. Get more Lejeune news from 2022 and 2023.
June 1, 2023 – Lawyers Face Scrutiny Over Lejeune Solicitation Methods
Two Camp Lejeune law firms implicated in unlawful client solicitation for Camp Lejeune contamination lawsuits have asked for the dismissal of a class action lawsuit. They deny having made or controlled calls to potential clients on a federal do-not-call list and are calling for the dismissal due to jurisdictional reasons, among others. The plaintiff alleges these firms, with others, targeted individuals on the do-not-call registry in a bid to accumulate business for a mass tort against the government.
The Camp Lejeune lawyers’ defense – and it is a good one it if is true – is that they never called the plaintiff. But regardless of how this class action lawsuit plays out, we can all agree that Camp Lejeune marketing was way over the top, and the legal industry has to do a better job of policing itself. Clearly, Camp Lejeune attorneys went too far but, in most cases, it was marketing companies, not law firms that were doing most of the crazy.
May 30, 2023 – Claims Build
The latest estimate from the Navy is 60,000 claims filed under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act. There are estimates of as many as 500,000 water contamination claims. Our estimate has been and continues to be between 100,000 and 125,000 meritorious claims.
May 26, 2023 – Navy Blames Staffing and Budget
In an email to claimants’ lawyers, a Navy attorney, Jennifer Tennile Karnes admitted that the Navy lacks the necessary financial resources and staff to promptly review compensation claims from veterans affected by toxic water at Camp Lejeune. She mentioned that the tort claims unit is working excessive overtime to handle the claims and expressed hope to double the staff by the end of summer. However, the Navy has yet to establish the promised online portal for expediting claims, and Congress has not allocated the additional funds needed to manage the compensation program. She described the Camp Lejeune claims process with a great metaphor: “building a plane mid-air.”
May 22, 2023 – Lawsuits Accelerate
Twenty-five new Camp Lejeune contaminated water lawsuits were filed in North Carolina on Friday.
May 17, 2023 – Pressure for Camp Lejeune Settlement Intensifies
Bloomberg Law reports that legislators from both sides of the aisle are intensifying their demand for an explanation for why the Navy has made little to no progress in resolving toxic-water contamination cases at Camp Lejeune Marine Base. This comes nine months after President Biden authorized a bill establishing a system for settling veterans’ health claims.
The Navy had not settled – or made settlement offers – for any of the roughly 45,000 claims that have been presented to them. The concern is how far away we are from the point where the Navy is in a position to make settlement offers. An online platform for managing these cases – that presumably will be able to calculate per person settlement amounts – will not be operational until summer.
Senators Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Representative Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) are calling for swift adjudication of these cases. They voiced their concerns in a letter addressed to Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro and Attorney General Merrick Garland, stating that any delay in processing these claims is a grave injustice.
May 16, 2023 – New Parkinson’s Disease Study
A strong new study released yesterday definitively links Parkinson’s disease to the toxic water at Lejeune. The Parkinson’s disease contaminated water cases will be, as we have said from the beginning, very strong case with high settlement amounts.
May 11, 2023 – Camp Lejuene Lawyers Sued
We can all agree that the Camp Lejeune lawyer advertising was just way over the top. A West Virginia woman filed a proposed class action lawsuit, claiming that certain law firms in Florida, Maryland, and Minnesota violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. She alleges that these firms repeatedly called her in an attempt to include her in the Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuits even though her number was listed on the National Do Not Call Registry.
May 9, 2023 – Navy Faces Criticism for Lack of Action on CLJA Claims
It has been nine months since the Navy JAG unit started receiving claims under the new federal law that promised compensation for Camp Lejeune water contamination victims. During that time, the Navy logged over 45,000 CLJA claims. However, not a single one of these claims has even been reviewed for settlement because JAG is still waiting for a portal system to enable claimants to submit supporting documents electronically.
Now the Navy is advising that the long-awaited portal for document submission won’t be ready until at least the summer. The Navy’s lack of action on the Camp Lejeune claims is generating a growing wave of frustration among veterans, lawyers, and even judges. At a recent hearing with Camp Lejeune lawyers last month, Judge James C. Denver of the Eastern District of North Carolina openly complained that “the Navy needs to step up its game.”
May 5, 2023 – Pressure on DOJ as Claims Build
We have been talking about how the government is bound to get hit over the head with the pressure of these lawsuits. US District Judge Terrence Boyle pushed back on DOJ lawyers’ request for more time at a recent hearing, pointing out that eight months is a long time to get ready to respond to these 900 filed toxic water lawsuits. This matters because the DOJ understands that the path out of chaos is formulating a plan to make reasonable Camp Lejeune settlement offers to victims. Anything that hammers home this realization and creates exigency to do just that is a positive development.
May 3, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Class Action Order
Again, there is no Camp Lejeune class action lawsuit. But there it is beginning to shape as if there is little difference between an MDL class action and this litigation. There is a new order that instructs the Clerk of Court to maintain a Master Docket case file titled “In re: Camp LeJeune Water Litigation” and provides additional directives for all PACT Act cases. Camp Lejeune lawyers are required to thoroughly read this order to be aware of important deadlines and information. This Order bears the signatures of the four judges in this case: Chief Judge Richard E. Myers II, District Judge Terrence W. Boyle, District Judge Louise W. Flanagan, and District Judge James C. Dever III.
May 1, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Class Action Lawsuit
We now have a Camp Lejeune class action lawsuit sort. Sort of.
It is not actually an MDL class action. But the Camp Lejeune litigation will look a lot more like an MDL. There will be at some point soon a master complaint and a master answer or other responsive pleading to the master complaint. The court will also establish processes for consolidating discovery, phased discovery, coordinating expert-related motions, coordinating dispositive motions, bellwether selection, trials, and settlement negotiations. The court will also create a database with narrowly tailored questions to obtain case-crucial information for each plaintiff and the defendant.
There is a lot of work to do. But this is a big step forward towards everyone working together to advance this litigation so the government can offer settlement amounts to victims.
April 19, 2023 – Judge Demands Fast Litigation Pace
Judge James C. Dever, III pointed out that it would take the four US District Court of Eastern North Carolina judges 1,900 years to get through all Camp Lejeune cases if each one were tried independently. This is roughly the same period as the Roman Empire, Judge Dever wrily noted.
Judge Dever underscored that these cases must move forward quickly because victims cannot wait year and year while lawyers make legal maneuvers.
April 18, 2023 – Number of Lawsuits Jumps
Over 800 Camp Lejeune civil lawsuits are now pending in the Eastern District of North Carolina, with an average of over 20 new CLJA cases filed daily. If this pace continues, there will be over 2,000 Camp Lejeune civil cases pending by Memorial Day. Meanwhile, lawyers for the government recently filed a motion seeking an extension of their deadline to file answers in the CLJA cases pending a ruling on the joint request for consolidation.
April 9, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Class Action Sought
As the number of Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuits filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina is increasing rapidly, attorneys representing the US government and plaintiffs are requesting that the cases be combined under one judge or that the Court manage pretrial proceedings in the litigation in a coordinated manner. This would not be a real class action lawsuit but would have many of the features of a class action.
March 28, 2023 – Pace of Lawsuits Is Accelerating
Administrative claims filed with the JAG by Camp Lejeune victims after the CLJA was passed last year became eligible to convert to civil lawsuits after six months. It has been nearly eight months since the law was passed last August, and last week brought a giant spike in new CLJA civil lawsuits.
Over the first month after the JAG claim deadline passed, we saw around 200 Camp Lejeune civil lawsuits filed. 179 Camp Lejeune cases were filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina just in the last week, nearly doubling the number of pending CLJA civil cases.
March 27, 2023 – JAG Spokesman on Camp Lejeune Settlement
Nearly 20,000 claims have been filed with JAG by Camp Lejeune victims, but so far, JAG has taken no action on those claims and has not even been accepting supporting documentation for them.
Last week, the JAG responded to a media inquiry by insisting that they are reviewing the CLJA claims and that they “may offer a settlement” if the “evidence substantiates the claim.” Although this is very encouraging to hear, it feels like an empty promise, at least in the short term. The JAG is not able to review cases for settlement – it is still not accepting supporting documentation from CLJA claims. So there is no way for JAG to determine if the “evidence substantiates the claim.” The question is when will the JAG get there?
March 20, 2023 – Lawsuit Count
260 Camp Lejeune civil lawsuits have now been filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina since the first claims brought under the CLJA became eligible to bring civil cases over one month ago. The weekly volume of new Camp Lejeune civil cases has more than doubled each week since the start of this month. There is still no indication of whether these cases will be consolidated.
March 19, 2023- Ease of Proof in Camp Lejeune Lawsuits
Victims of the Camp Lejeune water contamination are frustrated seeing how our legal system grinds forward at its own pace. Victims wonder if they will ever receive compensation.
If you are in this spot, it is important to remember that the Camp Lejeune lawsuits are still believed to be very strong cases, even those cases that are not considered “top tier.” What strengthens these cases further is the evidentiary burden for proving causation for these cases is significantly reduced. Lejeune only needs to “produce evidence” showing that “a causal relationship is at least as likely as not” – a concept known as “equipoise” causation.
If you have never heard of this, you are not the first. This will be the first time this standard is applied in a civil case, and it will make it easier for victims to establish a link between their illness and the contaminated water, even if other risk factors are involved.
Does that mean the government will not fight liability and the amount of compensation for your claim? No. You still may have a battle on your hands, especially if you do not have what the government thinks is a top-tier claim. But your chances are a lot better with this new standard of proof.
March 6, 2023 – Lawsuit Count
Since the start of this month, 22 more Camp Lejeune victims have filed civil lawsuits under the CLJA after exhausting their six-month administrative claim with JAG. There are now 179 Camp Lejeune lawsuits in the Eastern District of North Carolina. To put the volume of this water contamination litigation in context for this court, only 15 non-Camp Lejeune civil cases are pending.
March 4, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Attorneys’ Fees
The latest on the legislation involving Camp Lejeune attorneys’ fees.
March 1, 2023 – Sample Camp Lejeune Lung Cancer Lawsuit
Every story of Camp Lejeune water contamination told by these lawsuits is a tale of immense suffering and private tragedies. Each lawsuit stands as a testament to the devastating impact of chemical exposure on human lives.
The plaintiff in this case was born in 1932. During his military service, he resided at Camp Lejeune from approximately 1953 until the summer of 1957. During his time at the base, he was, of course, exposed to water contaminated with chemicals such as TCE, PCE, vinyl chloride, and benzene. He was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer and underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatment. Despite these efforts, he ultimately passed away in 1996.
His daughter presented an administrative claim for compensation to the United States Navy under 28 USC § 2675 on August 10, 2022, the day the legislation passed. The claim was constructively denied because the Navy did not act on this lawsuit or any other administrative claims that have been filed.
February 27, 2023 – Lawsuit Count Slow
On February 10, the earliest Camp Lejeune claimants became eligible to file civil lawsuits after the 6-month deadline on their administrative claims with JAG expired. It has been two weeks since that deadline expired, and 158 civil lawsuits have been filed under the CLJA in the Eastern District of North Carolina.
That is only a tiny percentage of the claimants who are now eligible to file suit, which means that the volume of CLJA case filings will probably increase dramatically next month. But there may also be some Lejeune lawyers who have a wait-and-see approach and will keep these claims on the administrative docket a while longer.
February 25, 2023 – NHL Update
We updated our non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma Camp Lejeune page today with revised settlement estimates.
February 22, 2023 – VA Claims
The VA Office of the General Counsel is making a public relations push to remind Camp Lejeune victims that they can still get VA disability benefits even if they file a civil lawsuit under the CLJA. There has been some unfortunate reporting in the media suggesting that you cannot bring both claims.
So this recent statement from the VA has sought to assure potential claimants that filing a claim or lawsuit under the new CLJA will not negatively impact their ability to get disability benefits for injuries related to the Camp Lejeune water. Over the last ten years, the VA has received 102,265 disability claims involving exposure to the toxic water at Camp Lejeune.
February 16, 2023 – More Suits Filed
Yesterday we saw nine more CLJA civil lawsuits get filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Since the administrative claim deadline for the earliest JAG claims expired last week, a total of 112 Camp Lejeune lawsuits have been filed so far. Just a few days ago, JAG announced that the number of administrative claims it has received under the CLJA is now over 20,000.
February 14, 2023 – Claims and Lawsuits
The JAG reports that 20,000 administrative Camp Lejeune claims have been filed. Over 100 lawsuits have been filed in North Carolina.
February 13, 2023 – It Begins
The Camp Lejeune litigation entered a new phase last Friday when the six-month deadline for JAG to take action on the Camp Lejeune administrative claims expired. As predicted, a surge of civil cases has started to get filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina. In the three days since the deadline expired, 79 new CLJA cases have been filed, and the volume will probably increase this week.
February 8, 2023 – Tw0 Days from Kickoff
The CLJA became law on August 10, 2022. Thousands of Camp Lejeune victims immediately filed claims for compensation with the Navy JAG Tort Claims Unit.
Under the CLJA, the Navy had six months to accept, deny or otherwise resolve the claims before the claimants could bring a civil suit. That deadline for the first CLJA claims is set to expire this week, and we know that JAG has not resolved any of the thousands of CLJA claims it has received. That means the Eastern District of North Carolina will be flooded with new Camp Lejeune cases starting next week.
February 1, 2023 – How Many Camp Lejeune Lawsuits Will We See?
Over 15,000 claims have already been filed with JAG since the CLJA was enacted back gust. This has led many to speculate about how many total CLJA claims will get filed before the deadline expires in 2024. Bloomberg and other news outlets have recently suggested that there could be as many as 500,000 CLJA claims.
I think this is a gross overestimate. I listened to a podcast today with the author, who is very knowledgeable about the Camp Lejeune litigation. But this estimate seems out of left field. Studies of the Camp Lejeune water contamination by the ATSDR have estimated that around one million people were exposed to the toxic water between 1953 and 1987. Approximately 200,000 may have developed cancer or other diseases. My guess is half of these people file claims which would put us at 100,000 lawsuits unless lawyers start bringing “I was at Camp Lejeune and that is it” lawsuits.
January 30, 2023 – Advertising for Lejeune
Bloomberg News reports that a total of over $145 million has been spent on advertising for Camp Lejeune water contamination cases by lawyers and lead generation companies. Most of that total ($112 million) has gone into television ads, which is more than double the amount spent on legal advertising for any other mass tort during the same period.
The article also talks about how private equity money is invading class action lawsuits. (Lejeune is not a class action lawsuit but has most of the characteristics of one.) Often in 2023, you are calling marketers who are advertising and then selling cases, not lawyers.
January 29, 2023 – Kidney Cancer Lawsuits
We updated our Camp Lejeune kidney cancer average settlement projections this weekend.
January 24, 2023 – Pace of Lejeune Litigation
For a while, our law firm was writing daily Camp Lejeune updates. That is hard to do now. Things are moving more slowly than we could have imagined six months ago.
Thousands of Camp Lejeune victims have filed claims with the Navy JAG. So far, however, JAG has not done anything with these claims. JAG is still not even accepting supporting documentation for CLJA claims.
Meanwhile, the DOJ has expended a lot of effort to dismiss a group of Camp Lejeune legacy cases for failing to re-submit admin claims to JAG (even though JAG is not doing anything with the CLJA claims). The point of this effort is lost on us.
This has led to backlash from veterans and lawmakers who are now publicly blasting JAG and DOJ. In a statement issued last week, Congressmen Matt Cartwright criticized JAG and DOJ for prolonging the suffering of Lejeune victims and calling on them to follow through with the intent of the CLJA.
There is no malice from the JAG or the DOJ who want to do the right thing. But this must accelerate to satisfy the congressional intent for victims to receive fair settlement compensation without unnecessary delay.
January 9, 2023 – 14,000 Cases
A spokesperson for the Navy JAG Tort Claims Unit recently issued a statement confirming that over 14,000 Camp Lejeune water contamination injury claims have been filed since the CLJA was passed in August. Over the upcoming months, this total claim figure may double, and we could be reporting 30,000 CLJA claims before the spring.
Lawyers were very focused on trying to get as many cases as possible in 2022. In 2023, the focus will shift to maximizing the settlement compensation for these claims. There is a lot of hard work ahead.
January 6, 2023 – Parkinson’s Disease
We updated our Parkinson’s disease settlement projections for Camp Lejeune for a second time this year. Our law firm has more Parkinson’s disease cases than any other injury. We also think these cases may have the highest settlement payouts in the litigation when all is said and done.
January 1, 2023 – Camp Lejeune Settlement “Budget”
Bloomberg reports that the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the Camp Lejeune settlement payouts will cost about $6.1 billion. We think this is incorrect.
Early in the process, the $6.1 billion figure was tossed around. This is not enough money to settle the Camp Lejeune lawsuits. The $6.1 billion estimate comes from a prior CBO cost estimate, a revised report significantly increased the potential estimated payout.
According to the CBO, these payments will cost another $15 billion after 2031:
“CBO expects that [Camp Lejeune] awards would be paid from the Judgment Fund, a permanent, indefinite appropriation that is available to pay monetary awards against the United States that are judicially or administratively ordered. Payments from that fund are classified as direct spending. CBO also estimates that, in addition to the amounts shown in this table, payments under the section would increase direct spending by about $15 billion after 2031. “
So adding the $6.1 billion would leave around $21 billion for Camp Lejeune jury payouts and settlement compensation. But this is not a set-aside fund for Camp Lejeune. It is just an estimated settlement amount from the government’s perspective.
January 20, 2023 – Will the Budget Battle in Congress Impact Camp Lejeune
The debt ceiling battle could have a short-term Camp Lejeune effect.
April 20, 2023 – Court Grants Extension
Thousands of plaintiffs have filed Camp Lejeune administrative claims, and hundreds of toxic water lawsuits have been filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The DOJ has a lot of work to answer these lawsuits and, at some point, review these settlement claims. The DOJ filed a motion to extend the time to file answers to each plaintiff’s complaint filed. In their response, the government expects coordination protocols to avoid duplicate pretrial proceedings and potentially conflicting rulings.
This is true. To address the logical complication that comes with this volume of contaminated water lawsuits, Camp Lejeune lawyers filed a motion to consolidate the litigation, asking that the cases all be assigned to one judge for pretrial proceedings and that the judges work with the attorneys to establish procedures to help manage the litigation. Those procedures will likely single out cases by the types of claims the government is expected to settle and the types of claims it is expected to fight.
This week, a judge granted the DOJ an extension on filing individual answers until May 31, 2023. This signals it will rule favorably on the motion to consolidate the pretrial proceedings, which will change the litigation landscape and be a small step forward to eventual Camp Lejeune settlement offers from the government.
January 11, 2023 – Legacy Claims
A group of four additional Camp Lejeune legacy cases were dismissed for failing to file a post-CLJA administrative claim with JAG. Judge Louise Flanagan followed the lead of her fellow judge in rejecting the legacy cases assigned to her, finding that their prior administrative claims could be used to satisfy the CLJA requirements. Half a dozen legacy cases are still pending with another judge, and these will probably be dismissed on the same basis very soon.
This has no impact on your case unless you are one of the plaintiffs who now have to get back in line with everyone else.
December 31, 2022 – $100 Million in Lejeune Television Advertising
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that Camp Lejeune lawyers spent more than $100 million on local and national television advertising in 2022. The Chamber notoriously exaggerates these types of things. But we have no reason to quarrel with this estimate.
The legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars was quoted this week as saying veterans should avoid these law firms. Do we agree? Not really. But we get his point, too.
December 29, 2022 – First “Significant” Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Ruling
Eight of the Camp Lejeune legacy cases have been dismissed (without prejudice) based on their failure to resubmit new administrative claims to JAG before filing suit after the CLJA was passed.
The Order by Judge James C. Denver, III, held that the language of the CLJA required the legacy plaintiffs to refile their JAG claims. Although, this only applies to legacy cases assigned to Judge Denver, the same ruling will most likely be adopted in the cases assigned to other judges.
I called this “significant” because it is for the parties. They have lost their early place in line for a trial date, which is a big deal for them. But it is insignificant to every other Camp Lejeune case.
December 28, 2022 – The JAG and Records to Evaluate Claims
JAG has received over 15,000 CLJA claims since the new law was passed on August 10, 2022tion has yet to be taken on any of these claims to date. This has prompted the expectation that the JAG will allow the 6-month deadline on these claims to expire without making a Camp Lejeune settlement offers.
The primary reason for the delay is that JAG is still waiting to launch an electronic claims portal that will enable it to request and review support documentation for claims. The supporting documentation will include things such as military service records and medical records.
The most recent notice on the JAG website makes clear that they plan on requesting supporting documentation. There is no other way to evaluate a settlement claim. But those requests will not be made until after the portal is up and running.
December 26, 2022 – JAG Still Sitting on CLJA Claims
We could get multiple inconsistent rulings on the issue of whether the Camp Lejeune legacy cases must be dismissed for failing to re-file administrative claims with JAG. The legacy cases have not been consolidated, so the government filed the same motion separately in each case.
Now these motions will be decided by at least two different E.D.N.C. judges. Judge Louise Wood Flanagan will hear the motion in some cases. In other Lejeune cases, Judge Terrence W. Boyle will decide.
December 23, 2022 – JAG Still Sitting on CLJA Claims
Nearly five months have elapsed since the first CLJA claims were filed with JAG. Over 15,000 claims have now been received, and JAG has only six months to take action before these claimants can move on to file a Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuit. Despite being one month away from this deadline, JAG is still not accepting or reviewing supporting documents for claims.
December 20, 2022 – 15,000 Camp Lejeune Claims Brought
According to a media inquiry response from the JAG Tort Claim Unit this week, 15,000 Camp Lejeune claims have been filed with JAG under the CLJA. JAG advised that none of these claims have been resolved so far. JAG stated two months ago that it had already received 5,000 CLJA claims. About a month ago, it was 8,000 reported claims.
Our attorneys believe we will see a large wave of new CLJA claims filed in 2023. Camp Lejeune lawyers were getting so many new cases over the first three months that many law firms were using their resources on new cases.
Now that the tidal wave of water contamination cases has slowed, attorneys are more focused on getting these cases in position for settlement. Filing the administrative claim is the critical first step.
December 18, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Advertising
The new law allowing Camp Lejeune water contamination victims to bring lawsuits against the government continues to fuel a massive lawyer advertising blitz that has driven just about everyone crazy. Our law firm gets calls, texts, and emails daily complaining about our Lejeune commercials and email blasts. We don’t do either.
A recent report on attorney marketing spending shows that expenditures on Camp Lejeune-related television advertising in October was $53 million. It was down a bit in November. But not by much. The next closest mass tort in terms of advertising dollars last month was mesothelioma (asbestos), which was a very distant second at $4.5 million.
The advertising has slowed down as we head into the new year. Our lawyers are not anywhere near the volume of new cases that we were a few months ago, and every Camp Lejeune lawyer we have talked to is reporting the same.
There is so much backlash over Camp Lejeune advertising, and lawyers have only themselves to blame. This image on YouTube I found this morning underscores this point well.
December 15, 2022 – Litigation Activity in North Carolina
The latest news out of North Carolina is that the court clerk entered a new note on the docket for all the Camp Lejeune legacy suits. The note from the clerk stated that the government’s motion to dismiss for failure to re-submit admin claims to JAG has been “submitted to District Judge Terrence W. Boyle.”
Although no further explanation is given, our attorneys think we can assume that this is the court’s way of stating that Judge Boyle will issue a universal ruling on the motion that will apply in all cases.
December 12, 2022 – Lung Cancer Settlement Amounts
We updated our lung cancer settlement projections for Camp Lejeune. Our attorneys include lung cancer settlement compensation and jury payouts in other tort claims to support our payout predictions.
December 10, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Attorneys’ Fees
Here is another new article on the dispute over Camp Lejeune lawsuit attorneys’ fees.
Many lawyers would prefer we keep quiet about the concern about lawyers’ fees so as not to give the issue “unnecessary oxygen.” We get that. But our loyalty is – and has to be – with Camp Lejeune victims and their families, not other lawyers in this litigation.
The name of the proposed bill is charming: Protect Camp Lejeune Victims Ensnared by Trial-lawyer’s Scams Act.
December 9, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Scams
We continue to hear from people who believe we are contacting them to pick up their Camp Lejeune settlement check. Again today, someone sent us their bank account routing number for their Camp Lejeune settlement.
Please be careful. There are so many quick settlement scams out there. No lawyer will contact you in these cases and tell you that you have a settlement when you have never contacted that law firm.
December 6, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Legacy Lawsuits
All briefs have been filed in connection with the motion to dismiss filed by the government in about a dozen Camp Lejeune legacy cases that were filed immediately after the CLJA was passed. No rulings have been made, and no hearing dates have been set.
It is unclear how this is going to play out. This motion was filed in over ten pending cases before different judges within the EDNC. There will need to be some consolidation of the cases to ensure the results are consistent. (We really have not talked enough about the challenges North Carolina federal courts have administering this many claims)
December 5, 2022 – Media Attention on Frustration in Waiting for Camp Lejeune Compensation
CNN has an article on the frustration many of you have about how long it might take for Camp Lejeune victims to see settlement compensation. We recently wrote a page to give you a better idea of when your water contamination lawsuit could get a settlement compensation offer from the government.
December 4, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Attorneys’ Fees
Many Marines and their families visit us daily for news and updates on the Camp Lejeune litigation. Here is a text message we received last night:
“From a lawyer’s point of view—I get you probably don’t want this to be made public—but from the victim’s point of view, I believe it should be made public.”
The reader was referring to this article that discusses a proposal to reduce the amount of attorneys’ fees lawyers can charge for a Camp Lejeune lawsuit. The reader is arguing that while we don’t want to talk about attorneys’ fees, we are obligated to keep Camp Lejeune victims and their families apprised of all the news and updates related to this litigation.
Okay… we agree. On all points. We cannot assume the role of providing news and updates for veterans and their families and cherry-picking the information we provide.
Camp Lejeune lawyers want to avoid talking about attorneys’ fees. Lawyers hate talking about attorneys’ fees generally, right? We fight for our clients tooth and nail and… well, we would rather not focus on the inconvenient truth that we profit from our clients’ suffering. This is true in this litigation and every other case we handle. Reducing fees – particularly on the insane level suggested by Senator Dan Sullivan (who voted against allowing veterans to seek compensation in the first place, by the way), is not something lawyers want in their own self-interest.
But reducing attorneys’ fees may be catastrophic for veterans, too. Why? Because the economics may force many lawyers to drop cases that are not perfect. Litigation is expensive and time-consuming, and trying cases for reduced fees against a government with endless defense costs is a quick path to bankruptcy. So if there was a cap on attorneys’ fees, you might see lawyers dropping all but the best Tier 1 cases. The result would be the government paying a lot less in Camp Lejeune settlements and jury payouts… and many victims losing a chance at justice.
December 2, 2022 – Updated Estimate of 14,000 Filed Administrative Claims
The Navy JAG Tort Claims Unit recently released updated information regarding Camp Lejeune claims under the CLJA. Through the end of November, JAG had received just over 14,000 claims alleging injuries caused by the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
That number will likely double over the next few months. However, JAG has still not made any real progress on resolving these claims, as they continue developing an online claim portal to submit supporting documents.
November 29, 2022 – NHL Cancer Settlement Amounts
We updated our non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma settlement amount projections for Camp Lejeune. Our attorneys include NHL verdicts and settlement payouts in other claims to support our payout predictions.
November 23, 2022 – Proving a Camp Lejeune Lawsuit
Many Camp Lejeune lawyers are shifting their attention from getting new cases to proving the cases that they do have. This is where the real work begins.
In every case, you must prove you (or your deceased family member) were at Camp Lejeune for a minimum of 30 days between 1953 and 1987. This is an elementary and straightforward requirement, and our Camp Lejeune attorneys expect that the government lawyers will use it to weed out weak claims. This means that all claimants should be fully prepared to back up this 30 days residency requirement with some type of evidence.
Three different types of evidence can be used to prove the residency requirement:
(1) service records from the military,
(2) other official documents evidencing residency, employment, or connection to Lejeune, and
(3) statements from witnesses with firsthand knowledge.
Claimants who only have witnesses’ statements to prove their Camp Lejeune connection can expect the government to contest their claim in some cases. But it is hard to imagine an otherwise strong case failing at trial because the jury did not believe the victim was at Lejeune.
November 21, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Scheduling Orders
Court hearings have not been set yet in the legacy Camp Lejeune lawsuits awaiting a ruling on the government’s dismissal motions for failure to submit admin claims to JAG before re-filing.
Meanwhile, the first of many automatic scheduling deadlines is starting to pop up in these cases. Notices recently advised the parties that they have until mid-December to submit joint discovery plans in the legacy cases.
Our lawyers are eager to see the government do something in these toxic water cases besides just collecting claims. Why? We want more tea leaves on how they intend to approach this sprawling litigation.
November 20, 2022 – Lejeune Administrative Process Yet to Take Flight
We still have optimism for early Camp Lejeune settlements. But it will not be in 2022. The JAG Tort Claims Unit will not attempt to settle any Camp Lejeune lawsuits during this administrative phase.
How do we know this? We STILL don’t have a system to send medical records, as we talk about in yesterday’s update. To make settlement offers, JAG would need to review individual cases and verify that the claims are supported by appropriate documentary evidence (e.g., medical records, service records).
JAG needs the staffing to do this. Again, they are not even accepting or reviewing any documents submitted in support of CLJA claims, much less doing the hard work to evaluate a claim to offer a settlement payout. This indicates that JAG won’t be doing much with these claims other than acknowledging them. Victims will wait for the statutory period and then file a water contamination lawsuit.
November 19, 2022 – Getting Records for Camp Lejeune Settlement
Since the CLJA was passed in August, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has been bombarded with thousands of requests from veterans (and their families) seeking military service records to support their Camp Lejeune claims.
The large influx of requests has overwhelmed NARA and caused a significant backlog. At the top of NARA’s Military Service Records webpage is a cautionary box titled “Important Notice Regarding the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022.”
The notice explains that CLJA claimants are not required to submit service records supporting their initial claims, but that JAG may request records later. This is an apparent attempt to prepare claimants for a delay when requesting service records in connection with Camp Lejeune.
November 17, 2022 – New Camp Lejeune Claims Update
There is a new information post on the JAG Tort Claims Unit webpage regarding Camp Lejeune claims under the CLJA. The JAG is working on a new electronic submission portal for claimants to use when submitting service records and medical records to support their claims.
The website explains that until this system is set up, JAG will not require or expect CLJA claimants to submit these documents to support their CLJA claims. So this still means that the JAG is not ready to make Camp Lejeune settlement offers yet.
The site also explains what any lawyer handling these cases already knew – the federal agencies handling service records have recently been overwhelmed with Camp Lejeune-related requests resulting in a backlog.
November 16, 2022 – Kidney Cancer Settlement Amounts
We updated our kidney cancer settlement amount projections. Our attorneys included the kidney cancer verdict and settlement payouts in other claims to support our predictions.
November 15, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Legacy Lawsuits Battle Continues
We have been talking about a battle between the government and plaintiffs who already brought a Camp Lejeune lawsuit. Those plaintiffs want to skip filing an administrative complaint and continue their lawsuit.
Does this dispute even matter? Yes and no.
It is hard to understand why the government what to fight a battle with no practical significance. But these plaintiffs have been fighting for a long time for justice. Symbolically, they want to be first. And, practically, they have reason to believe that filing first may put them first in line when a Camp Lejeune suit goes to trial.
(By the way, lawyers have been filing Tier I Camp Lejeune claims first. So, arguably, it is better for everyone else if the government wins the motion because I would rather a Parkinson’s disease case go first than cases chosen because they were already filed many years ago. There may be other arguments to the contrary. But there is no question we want the first case to go to trial to be a strong claim because any verdict will have a bellwether effect on the settlement amounts victims receive. )
Anyway, back to this dispute. The government filed a new brief last week in support of its motion to dismiss the Camp Lejeune legacy cases that were immediately re-filed after the enactment of the CLJA without filing new administrative claims with JAG.
The memorandum filed last Wednesday (in some of the legacy cases) reiterates the simple argument the government has made in support of its motion from the beginning. The memorandum asserts that the JAG claims filed by the legacy plaintiffs before the CLJA was passed don’t count, and these plaintiffs must refile new claims.
This latest brief, however, is supported by a long declaration from the head of the JAG Tort Claims Brach, explaining the factual background of the claims previously submitted to JAG by the legacy plaintiffs.
November 14, 2022 – When Will Your Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Settle?
The recent media and lawyer advertising attention regarding the water contamination at Camp Lejeune has prompted the CDC to initiate a long overdue investigation into possible health risks from other contaminated military sites.
The CDC publicly announced that it was launching a public health study to determine whether former residents of the Fort Ord Army base in California were harmed by exposure to toxic chemicals at the base. Fort Ord was an Army training facility that was closed in 1994 after the EPD named it one of the most polluted sites in the U.S.
November 10, 2022 – U.S. Supreme Court Denies Camp Lejeune Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from one of the initial Camp Lejeune civil lawsuits dismissed in 2016. The appeal challenged the lower court’s decision to use the Feres Doctrine (a rule that blocks military service members from suing the government in some instances) to dismiss the Lejeune cases. The government argued that the passage of the CLJA rendered the issue mute, and the justices agreed.
November 9, 2022 – GUARD Act Update
The so-called GUARD Act is a bill under consideration by Congress that was prompted in direct response to the Camp Lejeune attorney advertising blitz following the passage of the CLJA. The GUARD Act would impose penalties on lawyers for advertising for VA benefits when the VA does not authorize them. The bill was sent to the Veteran’s Affairs Committee and has gone nowhere since. With the mid-terms in the rearview mirror, there is little chance of the bill getting passed before the end of the year.
Ultimately, I don’t think many Camp Lejeune lawyers were pretending to advertise for VA benefits to attract clients looking to file a Camp Lejeune lawsuit. I could be wrong. I don’t see every ad; there have been approximately five million Lejeune television commercials. But I think a big reason the legislation died was the lack of evidence it was anything other than an isolated problem.
November 8, 2022 – Mid-Term Elections Impact on Lejeune Litigation
The mid-term elections are today. Will a power shift in Congress impact your prospects of a Camp Lejeune settlement?
No. The election’s outcome should have no impact whatsoever on how CLJA claims are handled. This litigation is not a Republican or Democrat issue. Both parties equally support (and don’t support) veterans. Everyone wants to make everything partisan politics in 2022. But, despite some political maneuvering on the CLJA before it passed, there is bipartisan support for this legislation.
Also, the Department of Justice has primary authority over settlement offers and valuing injury and wrongful death claims. The DOJ is part of the executive branch, which will not change hands after the election. (And even a new administration really would not change the facts on the ground, anyway.)
November 6, 2022
Last week, a second Petition to Perpetuate Testimony (Nelson v. United States 7:22-cv-186) was filed by a victim of the Camp Lejeune water contamination who is going to die before they can see their CLJA case filed. Mr. Nelson enlisted in the Navy in 1982, and he lived at Camp Lejeune three different times between 1983 and 1986 for training. Nelson lived in the barracks at Camp Geiger, Hadnot Point, and Holcomb Boulevard. In 2018, he was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and was recently admitted to hospice care. Nelson seeks to preserve his deposition testimony before he dies to provide critical evidence supporting his anticipated Camp Lejeune lawsuit.
November 5, 2022
We are getting more bullish on Lejeune lung cancer lawsuits. Indeed, these are strong claims if the victim did not smoke. But, increasingly, our attorneys think the lung cancer water contamination lawsuits for smokers may be more viable than we initially thought. We have revised our settlement predictions for these cases. Lung cancer cases are second only to Parkinson’s disease for tour Camp Lejeune clients.
November 3, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Lung Cancer Settlement Projections
We updated our Lejeune lung cancer settlement projections today. Our lawyers think the equipoise bar that lowers the burden of proof required for Camp Lejeune lawsuits could have a meaningful impact on the settlement payouts in these claims.
November 2, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Settlement Scams
Increasingly, we are getting emails, texts, and phone calls from people asking when they can pick up their Camp Lejeune settlement. People are sending banking information to deposit their settlement check. Scammers are using our law firm to lend credibility to their scams.
Camp Lejeune victims should be very cautious about any legal advertising that promises a quick or automatic cash settlement or payout. The new law passed by Congress in August (the Camp Lejeune Justice Act) does not offer immediate cash settlements to victims of Camp Lejeune water contamination victims. The CLJA simply gives Lejeune victims the ability to file a civil lawsuit.
There will be no automatic or quick settlement payouts for people who have never even hired a Camp Lejeune lawyer. Victims will still need to prove that their injuries were related to the Camp Lejeune water and either go to trial or get a settlement offer from the government.
October 31, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Attorneys’ Fees
Our lawyers are getting a lot of questions about attorneys’ fees. Many of our clients were frustrated that some Camp Lejeune lawyers were trying to charge them a contingency fee as high as 45%. Most law firm seems to be charging 40%.
Price should not be the only consideration when hiring an attorney for your Camp Lejeune lawsuit. You need a lawyer with a track record of success and someone who is going to care about you and what you have been through. But when you are comparing the best lawyers, it is something you should consider.
People often see that we are charging a lower contingency fee and ask if they can change lawyers. Ultimately, if you are happy with your lawyer, you should stay with that attorney.
October 30, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Wrongful Death Settlement Predictions Revised
We revised our Camp Lejeune wrongful death settlement amount estimates yesterday. We introduced some new logical underpinnings behind our predictions that will prove either sage or nonsense.
No two pieces of litigation are alike so comps only have so much value. But how the government has historically valued different types of injuries and wrongful death is important. History repeats and settlement payouts the government paid in previous cases for similar injuries and death are instructive in estimating settlement payouts for Camp Lejeune victims.
October 29, 2022 – Normal Burden of Proof Not Necessary for Lejeune Claim
Victims of the Camp Lejeune water contamination who bring claims under the CLJA will face a much easier evidentiary burden for proving causation. To prove causation, the CLJA merely requires claimants to “produce evidence” showing that “a causal relationship is at least as likely as not.” This is referred to as “equipoise” causation and it will be the first time this standard is applied in a civil case.
So what will this mean for your case? It should mean that you won’t have to battle quite as hard to prove that your disease is connected to the Camp Lejeune water even when you may have other risk factors.
This is a big deal. For example, if you were a smoker, it would be very difficult to prove that your lung cancer was caused by the water and not the cigarettes. Under equipoise, however, the contaminated water could be “at least as likely” as the cigarettes to be the cause. This is is a much easier hurdle to win your case.
October 28, 2022 – Easier to Bring a Camp Lejeune Lawsuit
Bringing a Camp Lejeune lawsuit is easier than bringing a typical civil lawsuit. The CLJA adopted a lower evidentiary standard for claimants to prove that their disease was caused by the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. Under the CLJA, claimants simply need to prove that “a causal relationship is at least as likely as not.”
This is called equipoise causation. So what exactly will this mean for Camp Lejeune victims? In practical terms, it should mean that CLJA claimants will have a higher chance of success regardless of what their alleged health condition is or what risk factors they may have.
October 27, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Wrongful Death Lawsuits
Many of the victims of the Camp Lejeune water contamination have already passed. The CLJA specifically allows for relatives of the deceased victim to bring a Camp Lejeune wrongful death lawsuit. Nearly half of the Lejeune clients our law firm has have wrongful death claims from a family member seeking a settlement or jury payout for the loss of someone they loved.
The one requirement the CLJA imposes is that death claims must be brought by the estate of the deceased victim. The individual with authority to act for an estate is referred to as the personal representative, administrator, or executor (it varies by state).
Anybody can be the personal representative of an estate. Sometimes it is a lawyer. But the personal representative is usually a close family member of the decedent (e.g., surviving spouse, child, etc.). Any settlement proceeds from a death claim get disbursed to the heirs of the decedent just like the assets of the estate.
October 26, 2022 – How Much of a Settlement Demand for a Camp Lejeune Lawsuit?
There has been an evolution in thinking in terms of how much your settlement demand for a Camp Lejeune lawsuit should be.
The initial optimism that the government might offer early settlement amounts has given way to a pragmatic understanding that the government does not yet have a system to put settlement amounts on the table. The JAG Tort Claims Unit in Norfolk received over 6,000 Camp Lejeune administrative claims in the two months.
All plaintiffs are required to file these claims and JAG has 6-months to either accept or resolve them, at which point the plaintiffs can file suit.
There has been a lot of speculation about whether JAG would be making settlement offers on some CLJA cases during this claim period. The conventional wisdom now is that the JAG cannot meaningfully evaluate this many claims in six months. The office handling these claims is understaffed and needs to ramp up to handle the onslaught of Camp Lejeune settlement applications.
Lawyers are submitting Camp Lejeune settlement demands of as much as $50 million in compensation. Why? Small demands are a cap on your settlement or jury payout. (See September 29, 2022 discussion below.) So if there is no chance a real settlement payout will be offered, there is no reason to put a ceiling on your future settlement compensation or jury payout.
October 25, 2022 – Battle Over Camp Lejuene Legacy Lawsuits Continues
Last week, the government filed a motion to dismiss a group of Camp Lejeune lawsuits filed immediately after the CLJA was enacted. An opposition to that motion to dismiss has already been filed in at least one of those cases (Ensminger, et al. v. United States).
The response brief argues that the plaintiffs previously complied with the administrative claim requirement under the CLJA when they submitted claims to JAG under the FTCA before filing their first lawsuits several years back. The response argues the statutory language of the CLJA does not require the plaintiffs to resubmit claims after the passage of the CLJA and such an interpretation would be contrary to the underlying purpose of the statute.
October 24, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Settlement Estimates
We will continue to revise our average per person settlement amount for specific Camp Lejeune lawsuits. Yesterday, we revised upward our predicted settlement for Parkinson’s disease lawsuits.
October 22, 2022 – Looking for Settlement Tea Leaves
On Monday, the government filed its motion to dismiss all of the Camp Lejeune legacy cases that were filed on the day that the CLJA became law.
A second group of six more Lejeune legacy cases were filed the next day. The government has not filed the same motion to dismiss in any of those Camp Lejuene lawsuits. We won’t get a decision on the motion until at least the end of January or later.
Camp Lejeune lawyers are following this closely. The outcome of these cases is of no consequence. But we are looking for tea leaves of how the government will defend these lawsuits and how they will approach settlement.
October 21, 2022 – Camp Lejeune Advertising Backlash
Understandable fatigue over the proliferation of Camp Lejeune lawyer advertising has prompted Congress to begin working on the passage of a new law called the Governing Unaccredited Representatives Defrauding VA Benefits Act (GUARD Act).
The GUARD Act would impose criminal penalties on lawyers who imply in their marketing that they can obtain VA benefits for clients when the lawyer is not authorized by the VA to handle benefit cases. The law is already there but without criminal penalties.
I was unaware anyone was doing this. I have not seen a television ad or anything online that does this. But the compensation for Camp Lejeune lawsuits is fierce and some attorneys are stepping over the line. The law seems unnecessary – this should be an easy job for state bar associations – but it is not hard to understand the frustration.
As much as everyone despises lawyer advertising (especially at the nauseating level we have seen for Camp Lejeune) it serves a vital public service. A large percentage of Camp Lejeune victims might never even know about the CLJA without the attorney ads offering legal assistance (as annoying as they are for the rest of us).
October 19, 2022 – Government Filed Motion to Dismiss Camp Lejeune Lawsuits
On Monday, lawyers for the federal government filed motions to dismiss all of the Camp Lejeune legacy lawsuits that were dismissed back in 2016 and immediately refiled after the CLJA was passed in August.
The motions argue that these cases must be dismissed. The government contends because the plaintiffs did not satisfy the requirement under the CLJA that they file and exhaust an administrative claim with the Navy JAG before bringing a civil lawsuit. The plaintiffs are going to argue that they already satisfied this requirement when they submitted admin claims to JAG before filing their initial lawsuits several years back.
The government’s view, however, is that those prior administrative contaminated drinking water claims are not relevant because they were filed before the CLJA was enacted. Our lawyers think that the decision on this issue could go either way, but the outcome will have little significance.
Is this a big deal or a little deal? It is a little deal. If the government wins its argument, the legacy plaintiffs will simply have to submit new claims to JAG and then re-file their lawsuits again after JAG denies the claim or 6-months pass without a decision. It is hard to understand the government’s purpose in wanting to delay justice even longer for victims that have already waited so long.
About three-fourths of our cases are injuries that are already deemed presumptively related to the toxic water at Camp Lejeune.
October 18, 2022 – Does It Matter Where You Lived at Lejeune?
The water contamination at Camp Lejeune occurred in three areas: Hadnot Point, Tarawa Terrace, and Holcomb Boulevard.
The Hadnot Point area was occupied by barracks and bachelor housing units. Tarawa Terrace was the family housing area, and Holcomb Boulevard featured the hospital, family housing, and other amenities.
Some have suggested that victims who did not live or work in one of these three areas do not qualify to bring a claim under the CLJA. We do not think Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuits will be fought in these weeds.
The CLJA allows claims by anyone who lived or worked at “Camp Lejeune” with specific reference to these three locations. Why? Because everyone living or working at Lejeune was likely exposed to the contaminated water regardless of where they lived on base.
October 17, 2022 – Is There Settlement Money Set Aside to Pay Camp Lejeune Lawsuits?
Over 6,000 CLJA claims have already been brought by Camp Lejeune victims and it has only been two months since the new law was passed. Is there enough money to compensate all of the victims.
There is a $6.7 billion number a lot of law firm websites are talking about. This number is wrong and it is our fault. We put that number out before the CLJA passed and everyone copied it. The real number that has been set aside appears to be more like $22 billion when you put it all together.
But this is not a Camp Lejeune settlement payout fund. There is no set-aside fund to pay Camp Lejeune settlements. But this estimate is a clear indication that the government is prepared to pay full settlement compensation to Camp Lejeune victims who file meritorious claims.