Marines Whose Disability Claims Were Rejected Should Consider Filing A Camp Lejeune Justice Act Lawsuit
More than 20,000 claims were rejected in error and can now be litigated because of the new law
Monday, September 19, 2022 - Marines with cancer and the survivors of those who have lived at Camp Lejeune have a limited amount of time to contact a Camp Lejeune cancer attorney and register with them to file a lawsuit. This applies to the surviving spouse or others who lost a loved one to the disease as long as they served, lived, worked, or played at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina for 30-days from 1953 to 1987. According to Reuters, individuals are coming forward in record numbers as lawsuits were prepared immediately following the recent passage of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act last month. In addition, thousands of claims were erroneously rejected by the Navy due to administrative errors. These errors included the administrative staff applying an erroneous cut-off date to claims, and also failing to ask claimants for more information about their condition. The Marine Corp Times told readers "Veterans Affairs processors in recent years mishandled more than one-third of all disability claims related to water contamination issues at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, potentially cheating as many as 21,000 veterans out of financial compensation, a government watchdog said."
The Act gives Marines who served on the base, their family members, and contractors who worked at Camp Lejeune the ability to seek substantial lump-sum monetary damages for cancer they developed as a result of drinking the local tap water. According to Reuters, "A spokeswoman for the JAG unit (of the Navy) said in an email that approximately 5,000 administrative claims have been filed since the legislation was signed." Reuters goes on to tell readers that attorneys knowledgeable about such matters estimate that the number of lawsuits filed could approach one-half of one million plaintiffs since more than one million people drank contaminated camp Lejeune tap water during the period in question. Such numbers would make it the largest mass litigation since the 300,000 lawsuits were filed against 3M, the manufacturer of Combat Army Earplugs that were found to be defective and the alleged cause of soldier hearing loss and tinnitus when the device was advertised to the military to prevent those conditions. Other mass tort lawsuits include more than 125,000 lawsuits filed against Bayer after acquiring Monsanto and their Roundup herbicide legal liabilities and also Johnson & Johnson for talc in their iconic baby powder containing asbestos and causing ovarian cancer and mesothelioma.
The Camp Lejeune Justice Act now gives Marines and their survivors the ability to file Camp Lejeune water lawsuits seeking lump-sum compensation for cancer caused by drinking Camp Lejeune tap water. Two main water treatment plants that processed water supplied to the base were compromised by volatile organic chemicals, benzene, and methyl chloride from several sources. The US Marines publicly acknowledged that they knew about the deadly contamination in 1980 and failed to warn marines on the base until 1987. The delay amounts to negligence, carelessness, and recklessness in allowing millions of Marines, their family members, and others to become exposed to the deadly toxins.
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