Progress Being Made In Processing Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Claims

Bellwether Trials May Begin In The Summer of 2024 That Guide Future Legal Action

Sunday, February 18, 2024 - Four judges in the Eastern District of North Carolina have made significant progress to speed up the rate at which Camp Lejeune water contamination victims are compensated. Camp Lejeune Justice Act claims began rolling in on August 4, 2022, when the act became law. Reuters recently reported accurate statistics on the magnitude of the administrative and judicial task that awaits the Navy and the North Carolina judiciary. As of February 1, 2024, " Nearly 150,000 administrative claims and 1,500 lawsuits have been filed over the water at the Jacksonville, North Carolina Marine base, which was contaminated for decades with chemicals that government scientists have linked to cancer and other diseases." Victims of water contamination have until August 2024 to file an administrative claim with the Navy. Most claimants have chosen to hire a Camp Lejeune Water attorney to help with the complexities of filing an accurate claim. Water contamination lawyer's fees have been capped at 20% of any administrative award and 25% of any amount awarded at trial. Law firms normally do not charge anything until they collect from the state or government and bear all upfront costs of producing and presenting a case. The Department of the Navy has 6 months from the day they receive the claim to make a person an offer. If the claim is rejected or the six-month time limit expires the claimant may file a Camp Lejeune Water Lawsuit. According to Reuters, the government has started the process of scheduling trials for 2024 as a test case that will set a precedent for future trials. " The first trials are expected to address claims over leukemia, Parkinson's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, bladder cancer, and kidney cancer.

Attorneys for both the government and the plaintiffs have selected batches of cases to go trial, with the final selection expected in the early part of 2024," Reuters reported. The government has also created an automated process to handle claims called the Expedited Option which legal experts think will handle the bulk of the claims promptly. Many cancer victims welcome the quicker pay option as they have little time left to live and may be willing to accept less if it means getting paid immediately. Judges in North Carolina also decided that jury trials would not be allowed primarily because the time it would take to select and seat a jury would be prohibitive. North Carolina Judges found juries to be unnecessary because only compensatory and not punitive damages are allowed. Had seeking punitive damages been granted juries may have awarded plaintiffs up to 10 times the amount of compensatory damages. The Navy and Department of Justice think that only certain types of cancer qualify for payment under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act and depending on the extent of one's cancer and the time spent on the base from 1953 to 1987, the amount of monetary damages are limited to between $100,000 and $500,000.

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