Camp Lejeune Water Lawsuit

Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Overview

Over one million U.S. Marines and their family members who worked or lived at Camp Lejeune or MCAS New River in North Carolina between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987 were exposed to contaminated water that contained toxic chemicals and solvents, which are known to cause cancer and other serious health side effects.

Although coverage for these injuries has been denied for decades, individuals can now pursue a Camp Lejeune lawsuit payout and settlement benefits.

Is the Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Real or Legit?

Yes. On August 10, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Promises to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act of 2022 (H.R. 3967), which is more commonly known as the PACT Act. This included a new Camp Lejeune water contamination law, which allows veterans, family members and other individuals who developed injuries likely caused by toxins in the water to file a lawsuit until August 10, 2024.

Lawyers are providing free consultations and claim evaluations to help veterans and their families determine if they are eligible for a Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuit.

Who is Eligible for a Camp Lejeune Lawsuit?

Financial compensation may be available for any individual who suffered an injury caused by contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, after living or working on the base for at least 30 days between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987, including:

• U.S. Military Servicemembers
• Military Family Members Residing on Base
• Unborn Children Exposed In Utero
• Civilian Contractors Working at Camp Lejeune

Camp Lejeune lawsuit payouts are being pursued for various types of cancer and other injuries that have been linked to chemicals and toxins that contaminated the drinking water.

Camp Lejeune Cancer Lawsuits:

• Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
• Brain Cancer
• Breast cancer
• Bladder cancer
• Central Nervous System Cancer
• Cervical cancer
• Colon Cancer/Colorectal Cancer
• Esophageal cancer
• Hodgkins Lymphoma
• Kidney cancer
• Liver cancer
• Lung cancer
• Ovarian cancer
• Leukemia
• Multiple myeloma
• Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
• Prostate Cancer
• Rectal Cancer
• Thyroid Cancer

Other Side Effects Eligible for Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Settlements:

• Parkinson’s disease
• Renal Toxicity/Kidney Disease
• Kidney Damage
• Hepatic steatosis (fatty liver disease)
• Aplastic anemia
• Scleroderma
• Birth defects
• Miscarriage
• Female Infertility
• Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
• Epilepsy (seizures)
• Immune Disorders
• Nerve Damage
• Neurobehavioral effects
• Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS or Pre-Leukemia)
• Neurobehavioral effects (tremors, lack of coordination, movement or motor problems or other symptoms consistent with undiagnosed Parkinson’s disease)

Latest Camp Lejeune Settlement and Lawsuit Updates

As Camp Lejeune lawsuits move toward settlement agreements as the government faces increasing pressure to resolve claims, lead counsel has launched a public-facing website for Camp Lejeune lawsuit status updates during the litigation, which will post regular reports about developments as coordinated pretrial proceedings get underway.

September 2023 Update: On September 7, the U.S. Department of the Navy announced a Camp Lejeune settlement option, which may resolve a large portion of the claims filed by veterans and their families. The elective option is limited to certain injuries known to be linked to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, with plaintiffs able to receive between about $100,000 and $550,000 depending on the type of injury and their duration of exposure. The DOJ indicates that Camp Lejeune attorney fees will be limited to 20% under the elective option, and 25% for claims pursued through the court system.

August 2023 Update: A group of nine Camp Lejeune lead attorneys have been appointed by the court, which will select a larger group of lawyers to be members of an Executive Committee and Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in August 2023. The plaintiffs’ lawyers and U.S. government quickly submitted competing Camp Lejeune trial and discovery plans, each of which call for the first cases to go to trial in 2024.

July 2023 Update: With a growing number of lawsuits being filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, the court has accepting applications from Camp Lejeune injury lawyers who will serve in various leadership positions in the litigation, taking actions that will benefit all plaintiffs. In July 2023, the judges will conduct interviews with lawyers for the Camp Lejeune leadership positions.

June 2023 Update: A group of lawmakers has demanded that the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense provide a status report on its plan to reach Camp Lejeune lawsuit settlements with veterans this month, calling for an explanation as to why such settlements have been delayed.

May 2023 Update: To help manage the growing number of cases, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina has established a Master Docket for Camp Lejeune lawsuits, and will accept applications this month from plaintiffs’ lawyers seeking to serve in various leadership positions to help facilitate the coordination of discovery and pretrial proceedings.

January 2023 Update: Thousands of Camp Lejeune water lawsuits will be filed in early February 2023, after the 180-day administrative review periods begin to expire for claims presented to the U.S. government after the Camp Lejeune Justice Act was signed into law on August 10, 2022.

Camp Lejeune Elective Option Settlement Details

The Camp Lejeune Elective Option, proposed in early September 2023, would provide settlements ranging from about $100,000 to $550,000, for individuals who suffered any of the following ailments:

• Kidney Cancer
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
• Leukemia
• Bladder cancer
• Multiple myeloma
• Liver cancer
• Parkinson’s disease
• Kidney Disease
• Systemic sclerosis/scleroderma

All of those injuries have been identified as potentially linked to Camp Lejeune drinking water contamination by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Those who take the Elective Option being offered by the government would be divided into two tiers of qualifying injuries.

Tier 1 includes those injuries backed by evidence of a causal link between one or more contaminants found at Camp Lejeune, including:

• Kidney Cancer
• Liver Cancer
• Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
• Leukemias
• Bladder Cancer

Tier 2 includes injuries where there is enough research to support a link between a contaminant and the injury, but not enough to firmly conclude there is a causal link, including:

• Multiple Myeloma
• Parkinson’s Disease
• Kidney Disease/End Stage Renal Disease
• Systemic Sclerosis/Systemic Scleroderma

The two tiers will be further divided into categories based on how long they were exposed to water at the military base. Claimants will get a larger reward based on how long they lived at the base, and which tier they are in.

Tier 1 Qualifying Injuries will receive $150,000 if they lived or worked on the base between 30 days and a year, $300,000 for one to five years of exposure, and $450,000 if they lived or worked at Camp Lejeune for longer than five years. Tier 2 Qualifying injuries will get $100,000 for a month to a year of exposure, $250,000 for one to five years, and $400,000 for more than five years.

Those who wish to participate in the elective option must properly present an administrative claim to the Department of the Navy. Their injury must have been first diagnosed or treated before August 10, 2022.

To qualify for the Elective Option, the claimant’s diagnosis must have occurred at least two years after their first exposure to Camp Lejeune water, and no longer than 35 years after they were last exposed.

They must also have the appropriate medical documentation showing their diagnosis or treatment, and there must be evidence that they resided or were employed at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987.

History of Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Problems

Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune is a nearly 250-square-mile training facility in Jacksonville, North Carolina. It went into operation in 1942.

From 1957 to at least 1987, evidence suggests that U.S. Marines and their families, as well as vendors and contractors who worked and lived on or near the base, were exposed to heavily contaminated water, which they and their families both drank and bathed in without knowledge of the potential health risks.

Many of those chemicals came from on-site laundry services and leaking underground storage tanks, which contaminated the base’s wells with volatile organic compounds and toxic solvents, linked to birth defects, pregnancy risks, as well as numerous forms of cancer.

Chemicals Found in Camp Lejeune Water

Grainger Laboratories began testing the water at Camp Lejeune for chemicals in response to new safety standards enacted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which discovered than 70 different chemicals in drinking water wells at Camp Lejeune since the late 1950s. Many of these chemicals are exposed Marines and family members to a risk of  cancer from drinking contaminated Camp Lejeune water, including:

• Tetrachloroethylene (PCE)
• Benzene
• Vinyl Chloride
• Trichloroethylene (TCE)
• DCE (trans-1,2-dichloroethylene)
• 70+ more toxic solvents and chemicals

The government and base officials knew about the contamination for decades. However, despite warnings from experts and numerous damning inspections and reports, little to nothing was done about the Camp Lejeune water contamination problems and the water was deemed safe, even as its poor, and alarming, chemical taste was commented on by marines and their families for years.

The wells were shut off in 1985, due to the high levels of contamination. However, they were illegally reactivated later.

One of the chemicals with the highest concentrations found in Camp Lejeune water was TCE, which is commonly used for dry cleaning and degreasing metal, and has also been linked to increased risks of cancer, congenital heart disease and pregnancy complications.

In March 2203, researchers published findings that highlighted the Parkinson’s disease risk from Camp Lejeune water, indicating that individuals and families who drank, bathed, cooked, swam, and played in Camp Lejeune water contaminated with TCE could be 500% more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease. Researchers stated that the toxic chemical TCE has neurodegenerative effects on the human body that can lead to the onset of Parkinson’s disease and other nervous system disorders.

In May 2023, a study was published in the medical journal JAMA Neurology, which compared Parkinson’s rates at Camp Lejeune to veterans who severed at a different base, finding that Camp Lejeune veterans were 70% more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.

Areas of Camp Lejeune With Contaminated Water

Chemicals in the Camp Lejeune water were distributed throughout the Marine base, including MCAS New River between 1953 and 1987. During this time, the following family housing units at Camp Lejeune were affected by toxic contaminated water:

• Tarawa Terrace I
• Tarawa Terrace II
• Midway Park
• Berkeley Manor
• Knox Landing
• Watkins Village
• Paradise Point
• Camp Knox Trailer Park
• Camp Johnson
• Camp Geiger
• MCAS New River
• Holcomb Boulevard
• Courthouse Bay
• Hospital Point

In October 2010, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program wrote a letter declaring that the drinking water at the base presented a health hazard.

The declaration came decades too late for many of the marines and families that lived on the base for years, drinking and bathing in water that was heavily contaminated. Some chemical contaminants were found at levels nearly 4,000 times higher than deemed safe for human consumption.

Examples of Camp Lejeune Lawsuits

Prior to the passage of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, the U.S. Government and Department of Veterans Affairs denied claims and fought to avoid paying compensation to veterans and family members injured. In 2016, more than 850 Camp Lejeune Lawsuits were dismissed, since the water contamination was discovered long after the North Carolina Statute of Repose had expired. However, under the new Camp Lejeune law, individuals can pursue a lawsuit until August 10, 2024.

Camp Lejeune Birth Defects Lawsuit: A joint complaint was filed by six individuals who were each exposed to Camp Lejeune water in utero on August 22, 2022, indicating that their mothers drank, cooked and bathed in contaminated water before they were born. As a result, plaintiff’s indicate that they suffered various birth defects from the Camp Lejeune water, including scarred retinas and blindness, kidney birth defects, spinal disorders, low birth weight, hip malformations, skeletal anomalies, spina bifida occulta and a spinal malformation.

Camp Lejeune Multiple Myeloma Lawsuit: Son of a U.S. Marine exposed to Camp Lejeune water in the 1970s filed a lawsuit, alleging that he developed multiple myeloma decades later. Robert Park indicates that he regularly consumed the water playing sports and living with his family at Camp Lejeune between June 1975 and June 1979. Lawsuit alleges the Camp Lejeune water caused multiple myeloma that was diagnosed in August 2005.

Camp Lejeune Chronic Kidney Disease Lawsuit: Former U.S. Marine Victor Malafronte filed a lawsuit alleging that Camp Lejeune water caused chronic kidney disease and chronic interstitial nephritis, following service at the base in the 1960s. Although the U.S. government previously denied his claim in 2019, the lawsuit was filed weeks after the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 was signed into law. As a result of the kidney problems from Camp Lejeune water, Malafronte, indicates that he was unable to maintain steady employment, experienced depression and other side effeects.

Camp Lejeune Aplastic Anemia Lawsuit: One of the first Camp Lejeune lawsuits was filed by Andrea Weiner, of Ohio, who developed Aplastic Anemia from the water, which is a serious blood condition caused by bone marrow development failure. Weiner claims that Aplastic Anemia was caused by exposure to TCE, PCE, vinyl chloride and benzene in Camp Lejeune’s water supply. The complaint indicates Weiner filed an administrative relief claim to the U.S. Navy in 2002, but was ultimately denied by the Navy’s failure to respond.

Camp Lejeune Ovarian Cancer Lawsuit: On August 11, 2022, a complaint was filed on behalf of three separate women, indicating that the Camp Lejeune water caused ovarian cancer to develop for each of them. One of the claims was a Camp Lejeune wrongful death lawsuit filed by the surviving husband of Charlotte Luthy, who lived in the Tarawa Terrace area from 1972 to 1974.

Camp Lejeune Class Action Lawsuit: A class action lawsuit over Camp Lejeune water contamination was filed by Donald Stringfellow on August 14, 2022, pursuing certification of his complaint to protect the statutory rights, opportunities and benefits accorded under the new law.

How to File A Camp Lejeune Water Lawsuit?

The ability to file a Camp Lejeune water lawsuit was specifically authorized under the PACT Act of 2022, opening a two year window for individuals injured by the toxic water to pursue financial compensation. However, specific guidelines and requirements must be filed to file a case and obtain a Camp Lejeune settlement.

Prior to filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government, notice of the Camp Lejeune water contamination claim must be provided to the appropriate federal agency under the requirements of 28 U.S. Code § 2675.

The U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps has posted information about how to file a claim under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, outlining the steps that must be taken to file a Camp Lejeune water lawsuit. The agency indicates that even claims previously denied under the Federal Tort Claims Act over water contamination at Camp Lejeune, must still be refiled for consideration under the new law.

Each claimant must file a Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claim form (PDF), providing specific information about their claim, including:

• Status at time of exposure to Camp Lejeune water (Member of the Armed Forces; Military Family Member or Dependent; Civil Service Employee; Civilian; Contractor Working for Private Company on Base; Unborn Individual Exposed In Utero)
• Where you resided at the time of exposure (Terawa Terrace Housing; Hospital Point Housing; Other On-Base Housing; Outside of Camp Lejeune)
• Whether you worked at Hadnot Point Industrial Area in Camp Lejeune
• Nature of your injury (Personal Injury Caused by Water at Camp Lejeune; Wrongful Death Following Exposure to Camp Lejeune Water)
• Specific type of cancer or other injury that is the basis of the Camp Lejeune lawsuit

The form also requires that each individual specify the amount of their Camp Lejeune claim in U.S. dollars, certifying that it will be accepted as a full and final Camp Lejeune water settlement amount if offered by the U.S. Government. Failure to specific the total amount of the damages sought from the Camp Lejeune water contamination during this process may result in a forfeiture of your rights.

The completed CLJA claim form can be returned by email to CLclaims@us.navy.mil, or via U.S. Mail to:

Camp Lejeune water contamination lawyers can assist with completing these claim forms on your behalf, and have the ability to submit batch filings, which will expedite the filing of claims.

A Camp Lejeune lawsuit can not be filed until the submitted claim is rejected in writing, sent by certified or registered mail, or if the government fails to make a final disposition within six months after it is filed.

While the Department of the Navy has indicated that it is committed to reviewing and resolving the claim forms in a timely manner, it is unknown at this time how they will be able to process the tens of thousands of Camp Lejeune claims that are being submitted.

If a Camp Lejeune Settlement is not reached within six months after the claim is submitted, a lawsuit can be filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, which has been granted exclusive jurisdiction over the claims. The deadline to file a Camp Lejeune water lawsuit is 8/10/2024.

Do I need a lawyer to file a Camp Lejeune Water Lawsuit?

While you do not need a lawyer to file a Camp Lejeune water contamination lawsuit, it is important to carefully follow the requirements of the new law and seek legal advice if you are unfamiliar with the process. A lawyer can help you navigate the filing your claim and protect your legal interests, to help make sure you get all of the settlement benefits you are entitled to receive.

Camp Lejeune lawyers provide free consultations to help determine if you or a loved one may be eligible for a settlement, and can provide advice regarding the process of pursuing a claim. There are no fees or expenses unless a recovery is obtained in your case.