Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Victims May Be Denied Their Day In Court Afterall

North Carolina Judges have ordered the creation of a computer database like on 911 in which to input Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claims Into Groups

Wednesday, June 21, 2023 - About 70,000 Camp Lejeune Justice Act claims have been filed administratively since the bill was passed into law in August 2023. Unfortunately, the Navy does not have the administrative capacity to handle such a large number of cases and cases filed more than 6 months ago have expired allowing Camp Lejeune lawsuits to be filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina. More than 1000 cases currently flood the North Carolina docket and one judge has said that it will be impossible to hear each one individually and that hundreds of similar cases must be grouped and processed as one. " The historic rule is, of course, you get to trial and you adjudicate," he said. "Well, you can't adjudicate 100,000 cases. You just can't." A mass approach can save years of legal wrangling and remove the risks for all involved in going to trial. But there are tradeoffs for that speed and efficiency. "It really undermines the concept of the individual's right to a day in court," Miller said. "These people will never get a jury trial, they will never be recognized as individuals. They will not have a formal day in court," one North Carolina Judge told TPR.org. The speed at which the cases are adjudicated may depend on the nature of the illness that the plaintiff suffered from. The CLJA covers a variety of types of cancer and the presumption is there was causation with drinking the tap water on the base. Other categories of Camp Lejeune water contamination illnesses may be categorized as those suffered by children born of mothers who drank Camp Lejeune water while pregnant and suffered a birth defect or were stillborn. Women who had miscarriages also may be another category of claimants. Cases that do not fall into one of these presumptions may have to wait to be heard independently. It took about 6 years from September 11, 2001, for victims' cases to be finalized.

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) was included in a bill called The Honoring Our Pact Act. The latter promised to include cancer caused by burn pit toxicity at overseas US military bases in the list of diseases from which one can claim disability benefits. The core benefits being offered to military veterans by the act include: expanding VA health care eligibility for Veterans with toxic exposures for all Veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf War, and post-9/11 eras. The Act also adds about 20 additional presumptive illnesses and includes diseases caused by toxic burn pits, exposure to Agent Orange, and other toxic exposures, according to the VA. Within the Honoring Our Pact Act is the Camp Lejeune Justice Act which allows US service members, civilian employees, and their family members the right to file a lawsuit against the federal government should their claim for lump-sum monetary compensation be denied by the Navy JAG. Drinking or otherwise ingesting contaminated Camp Lejeune water is presumed to have led to developing one or more of a long list of types of cancer.

Information provided by CampLejeuneJusticeActClaim.com, a website devoted to providing news about Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claim, including a free no-cost, no-obligation Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claim.