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The Camp Lejeune lawsuits claim the Camp Lejeune military base contained highly toxic industrial chemicals in its water supply that could cause cancer and other illnesses. Our law firm is investigating cases where individuals were exposed to volatile organic compounds at Camp Lejeune and have received a cancer diagnosis.
Our law firm is no longer accepting Camp Lejeune clients.
Individuals who lived or worked at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, between 1953 – 1987 could have been exposed to water contaminated with volatile organic compounds (VOC), including trichloroethylene (TCE) and tetrachloroethylene (PCE); as well as benzene; trans-1,2-dichloroethylene (DCE); and vinyl chloride.
Exposure to this contaminated water has been linked to an increased risk of cancers—including kidney cancer, leukemias, and multiple myeloma—as well as adverse birth outcomes and other adverse health effects.
To qualify for compensation under the Camp Lejeune settlement, any claim or lawsuit must be filed within two years from the enactment of the PACT Act. This deadline falls on August 10, 2024.
Our lawyers want to keep veterans, military personnel, and their families up to date on what’s happening with the Camp Lejeune contaminated water litigation and settlements. Here’s a monthly breakdown.
The Camp Lejeune Justice Corrections Act was sponsored by two North Carolina lawmakers with the intention of resolving problems with the original Camp Lejeune Justice Act and defining the rights of veterans and their families.
If this measure is passed, it would protect the right to a trial by jury and increase the number of courts with jurisdiction to help handle the backlog of cases. This bipartisan bill aims to remove obstacles that keep people affected by the water at Camp Lejeune from receiving benefits to which they may be eligible. However, after initial introduction, it is clear the Act will require several revisions to the Act in the coming months.
In mid-June, the judges in North Carolina authorized a joint motion filed by the plaintiffs’ counsel and the government about the selection process for Track 1 Trial Plaintiffs. From the Track 1 Discovery Pool, parties will choose 25 plaintiffs to progress in the pretrial process.
These plaintiffs will have alleged one or more of the following five specific ailments:
The first plaintiffs in line for trial will have to give up any claims they may have for additional diseases or injuries brought on by the water at Camp Lejeune.
The Plaintiffs’ Leadership Group (PLG) is required to suggest three plaintiffs for each sickness. Then, the defendants will then choose two plaintiffs for each sickness. Once the parties have selected these cases, Plaintiffs must return the waivers from the 25 Plaintiffs. These waivers stipulate that the plaintiffs will waive the pursuit of additional injuries. “Track 1 Trial Plaintiffs” will be the name given to the finalized roster of plaintiffs.
Forty-five days following the acquisition of all required waivers, fact discovery—including general discovery for the plaintiffs in the Track 1 Trial—must end. The trial order that establishes the order of proceedings will supersede the deadlines for expert discovery. Following the issuance of this order, each side will have a set amount of time to disclose its expert witnesses during the expert discovery phase.
Following the court’s entry of the Trial Order, all discovery and deadlines for plaintiffs who were not chosen as Track 1 Trial Plaintiffs will be suspended. This allows each of the Camp Lejeune lawyers taking part in these bellwether trials to concentrate solely on the cases that are going to go to trial first.
You might wonder how the outcome of 25 cases affects your case. Bellwether trials help both sides determine case values and are often used as a basis for potential settlement negotiations. This also includes determining whether we will be taking the route of a federal filing or working with the Judge Advocate General (JAG).
There are now 1,764 litigation related to Camp Lejeune, according to the most recent data. Not a significant rise. However, there are now 227,309 administrative claims filed with the Navy, a significant increase. Thus, although the number of new lawsuits has not increased significantly, the volume of claims has.
It is important to recognize that all but 100 cases out of the 1,764 cases in Federal Court are currently “stayed.” This means there is no discovery ongoing. The courts are encouraging claimants to keep their cases filed administratively. This way, if a global settlement occurs, the Judicial Advocate General will be able to handle these cases in an effective manner.
The Department of Justice proposed the priority of five conditions in Track 3:
The Plaintiffs proposed the priority of the following conditions in Track 3:
There has been NO order yet determining which injuries will be included in the Track 3. Additionally, no trials for Track 2 or 3 will begin discovery until the conclusion of the Track 1 trials.
Plaintiffs’ leadership filed a reply supporting their Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on the issue of causation. As plaintiffs’ counsel point out, the passage of time since claimants’ exposure to toxic water at Camp Lejeune make it difficult to prove specific causation. As such, the attorneys contend, the CLJA was established with a general causation standard. Plaintiffs’ leadership urged the court to keep Congress’ intent in mind and grant the motion, thereby enabling claims to be more efficiently resolved.
Three important things happened in February.
The ATSDR’s Cancer Incidence Study has been released. According to the study Camp Lejeune military personnel and civilian workers experienced a higher risk of developing certain types of cancers, including:
The study has sharpened the focus on the following cancers:
The Camp Lejeune judges ruled that the CLJA does not grant Camp Jejeune plaintiffs the right to a jury trial. Plaintiffs’ attorneys are appealing this ruling in two cases. Litigation for the remainder of cases will continue.
On February 26, 2024, the court ruled on the injuries for Track 2 lawsuits. This includes claimants with these illnesses:
Plaintiffs will not be selected for Track 2 until the Track 1 trials have concluded.
The Department of Justice and the Department of the Navy issued a warning alerting claimants about fraudulent attempts to collect monetary payments or personal information from claimants. The warning reminds claimants that legitimate CLJA-claims-related emails will come from claimants’ respective attorneys or from the address CLClaims@us.navy.mil. Individuals who receive calls claiming to be from the Navy’s Camp Lejeune Claims Unit (CLCU) should get the caller’s information and verify its legitimacy at (757) 241-6020.
Plaintiffs’ attorneys are appealing the Magistrate judge’s ruling blocking plaintiffs’ counsel from being able to review the ATSDR’s Cancer Incidence Study.
In the first week of December, depositions were scheduled for the U.S. Marine Corps, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
ATSDR has a new study (the Cancer Incidence Study) revealing heightened cancer rates in people who lived and worked at Camp Lejeune who were exposed to the military base’s contaminated water between 1953 and 1987. The study drew data from the U.S. cancer registry and compared cancer rates in Camp Lejeune with those at Camp Pendleton, where the water had not been contaminated. The study has yet to be released.
The DOJ reports that as of November 27, 2023, 16 Camp Lejeune cases have been determined to be eligible for settlement. On November 22, the government argued to federal judges that the Camp Lejeune Justice Act does not specify the right to a jury trial in these cases.
Throughout the month, plaintiffs’ counsel and the government have battled over rules for wrongful death claims. Plaintiffs are asking the court to not require that each plaintiff open an estate in North Carolina. The legal team argues these are not Federal Tort Claims Act claims, as the government tries to portray them. Rather, these claims are governed by the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, thereby breaking any ties to North Carolina law when determining how a “legal representative” is defined in these cases.
The month’s work also consisted of the government and plaintiffs’ counsel developing a questionnaire to gather information, to be housed in a secure database, from those harmed by Camp Lejeune’s contaminated water. The data will facilitate determining how compensation will be calculated.
October 2023 Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Updates
An initial status conference took place on October 30, 2023. Agenda items included a report on the number of CLJA actions filed and their status, the number of administrative claims filed with the DON, a report of information from the last meeting, agreements made between parties since the last meeting, and possibilities for resolving the matter. Reportedly, demands have been submitted by more than 117,000 former Marines and family members who suffered injury from exposure to Camp Lejeune’s toxic water. Combined demands have reached into the trillions of dollars.
The EPA has proposed a ban on the use of trichlorethylene (TCE), a primary contaminant in the Camp Lejeune drinking water, after evidence showed the chemical can cause cancer and other serious health problems.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of the Navy (DON) announced an elective option geared to hasten payout to Camp Lejeune veterans and civilians who suffered from a limited set of illness from exposure to the marine base’s toxic water. Payouts would range between $100,00 and $550,000. The option supplements the existing terms of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 (CLJA) and grants the Department of the Navy greater authority to resolve a limited group of these claims.
LPR believes the current compensation presented in the elective option undervalues each illness and the amount of time they lived or worked at Camp Lejeune.
For Tier 1 diagnoses, settlement offers would be $450,000, $300,000, or $150,000 for exposure time frames of over five years, one to five years, or 30-364 days, respectively. Qualified illnesses include:
For Tier 2 diagnoses, settlement offers would be $400,000, $250,000, or $100,000 for exposure time frames of five years, one to five years, or 30-364 days, respectively. Qualified illnesses include:
An individual whose claim involves death would receive an additional $100,000.
In a status update filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, leadership stated it had “convened, deliberated, and selected the members” of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee (PEC) and Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee (PSC). Levin, Papantonio, Rafferty Attorney Brian Barr was appointed to the PEC for Camp Lejeune Contaminated Water litigation.
Volatile organic compounds were detected at Camp Lejeune in 1982 and traced to drinking water coming from two of the eight water treatment plants on the base. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reports that from 1953 to 1985 the systems that supplied drinking water to two housing areas at Camp Lejeune were contaminated with industrial chemicals. During this period, close to 9,000,000 service members were potentially exposed to this harmful water, according to the VA, making Camp Lejeune one of the worst cases of water contamination in U.S. history.
Several Camp Lejeune base housing areas were affected by the contamination, including:
The discovery of contaminated water at Camp Lejeune prompted VA to establish a presumptive service connection, meaning that servicemembers who were exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune between August 1, 1953, and December 31, 1987, and are diagnosed with certain diseases and conditions need not establish a link between the disease or condition and active-duty service in order to receive VA disability benefits.
Military service members must meet all the following criteria to qualify for a Camp Lejeune-related VA disability claim:
The VA provides the following map highlighting Camp Lejeune disability benefit coverage area:
VA disability benefits do not adequately compensate servicemembers and their families for the losses they have endured due to their contaminated-drinking-water-related illnesses. Furthermore, servicemembers have not been previously eligible to sue the federal government for damages.
However, legislation introduced in 2022 aims to lift this restriction.
In May 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill creating an exception to the rule that the U.S. government is not liable for servicemembers’ injuries. Under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, service members and their families would be permitted to bring legal action to seek financial relief for their injuries/illnesses if resulting from exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
This federal cause of action covers:
The Marine Corps developed the Camp Lejeune Historic Drinking Water Notification Database to help identify and communicate with individuals who either lived or worked at Camp Lejeune between August 1, 1953, and December 31, 1987, and could have been exposed to contaminated water.
The ATSDR provides detailed data about the chemicals found at both the Tarawa Terrace Treatment Plant and the Hadnot Point Treatment Plant. According to the agency’s analysis, PCE was the main contaminant found at Tarawa Terrace, with concentrations exceeding Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) maximum contaminant levels. ATSDR explains that this compound degrades in groundwater to TCE, DCE, and vinyl chloride. The source of the PCE contamination was an off-base dry cleaner facility.
At Hadnot Point, the main contaminant found was TCE (at 1,400 parts per billion (ppb)), with the current limit being 5 ppb. DCE, PCE, benzene, and vinyl chloride were also discovered at this treatment plant. According to ATSDR, this contamination stemmed from leaking underground storage tanks and waste disposal sites.
The chemicals found in Camp LeJeune drinking water serve multiple purposes.
The health outcomes of exposure to chemicals depend on several factors:
Additionally, several studies have shown that exposure to contaminants found in water systems at Camp Lejeune produce an increased risk of certain cancers and illnesses.
A January 2017 study by ATSDR concluded the following potential health effects from Camp Lejeune’s drinking water:
TCE
PCE
Benzene
Vinyl chloride
2018 Study of Camp Lejeune Water-Related Diseases
In 2018, the ATSDR published a study aimed at determining whether exposure to Camp Lejeune’s contaminated drinking water was linked to specific cancers or other diseases in service members, families, and civilians.
The study reviewed medical problems from this population and compared them with their counterparts at Camp Pendleton, who had not been exposed to the contaminated water. The group also researched whether increased levels of exposure to the drinking water contaminants were connected to an increased risk of disease.
Researchers concluded there was a connection between exposure to Camp Lejeune drinking water and an increased risk of bladder cancer, kidney cancer, and kidney disease.
Specifically, the study showed the following links:
The study also showed that risks for the following contaminant-disease combinations increased with exposure:
The amounts that claimants can receive in Camp Lejeune verdicts or settlements depend on multiple factors, including the type and extent of disease or health condition suffered as a result of exposure to the base’s contaminated water.
Generally, this type of action will involve several types of recoverable damages, including (but not limited to):
Our Camp Lejeune attorneys will work to recover the maximum financial compensation for your losses which occur from your exposure to contaminated drinking water at the military base.
1942: Construction of all principal areas of the Camp Lejeune base are completed or begun.
1989: The EPA adds Camp Lejeune and ABC One-Hour Cleaners to list of Superfund Sites, adding both to the National Priorities List
1990: ATSDR identifies PCE as the main contaminant of concern in Camp Lejeune’s Tarawa Terrace drinking water system. Despite the well’s removal, groundwater remains contaminated, making it and subsurface soils a public health concern.
1997: ATSDR identifies exposure to Camp Lejeune contaminated water as a past health hazard and recommends study to assess danger to children who had been exposed in utero.
2003: ATSDR identifies from phone survey 106 cases of children with birth defects and some form of childhood cancer.
2007: Tarawa Terrace water treatment plant analysis shows that residents in this area of housing from November 1957 to February 1987 received PCE-contaminated drinking water that exceeded EPA’s max contaminant level.
2008: National Defense Authorization Act requires a health survey of people potentially exposed to Camp Lejeune contaminated drinking water.
2011: ATSDR mails health surveys to people who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune during the contamination period, asking recipients about 20 different cancers and diseases.
2014: Mortality Study of Marine and Naval Personnel; Mortality Study of Civilian Employees
2016: Cancer Incidence Study to determine if exposure to contaminated waters increased risk of specific cancers.
2017: ATSDR’s Camp Lejeune Drinking Water Public Health Assessment released showing health effects of VOC exposure from drinking water at Camp Lejeune.
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