Camp Lejeune Injury Lawyers Seek Leadership Roles in Consolidated Court Proceedings

A group of federal judges in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina are accepting applications this week from Camp Lejeune injury lawyers seeking to serve in various leadership roles during the coordinated proceedings, established for all claims brought over contaminated water on the military base between the mid-1950s and late-1980s.

Last summer, President Joe Biden signed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CJLA) of 2022 into law, which opened a two-year window for veterans, military family members and other individuals left with injuries from Camp Lejeune water to file a lawsuit against the U.S. government, which had previously denied all claims under qualified immunity defenses and the North Carolina Statute of Repose.

As a result, thousands of marines and their family members are now pursuing Camp Lejeune settlement benefits for various types of cancer, neurological disorders and other diseases linked to contaminants in the water. However, the litigation is expected to become one of the largest mass torts in U.S. history before the end of 2024.

The new law requires all lawsuits over Camp Lejeune water contamination be brought in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, which was granted exclusive jurisdiction over the claims, where a master docket has been established to help coordinated discovery and pretrial proceedings in the litigation.

Leadership Positions for Camp Lejeune Injury Lawyers

On May 22, U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Jones, Jr. issued an order (PDF) calling for attorneys who would like to serve as Plaintiffs Leadership Counsel or on a Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee to submit applications to the court no later than Friday, May 26.

These Camp Lejeune injury lawyers will take certain actions during the pretrial proceedings that benefit all plaintiffs, including conducting discovery and depositions into common issues that impact all claims, arguing motions before the courts and potentially negotiating Camp Lejeune settlements that establish a framework to resolve all claims.

However, each individual plaintiff will still maintain their own lawyer to meet various deadlines and establish they meet the criteria for a Camp Lejeune lawsuit payout.

Camp Lejeune Water Contamination

Estimates suggest more than a million Marines and their family members were exposed to contaminated Camp Lejeune water between the early 1950s and late 1980s, with some reports suggesting that toxic chemicals from Camp Lejeune may be responsible for more than 50,000 cases of breast cancer, 28,000 cases of bladder cancer, and 24,000 cases of renal cancer, as well as thousands of cases involve Parkinson’s disease and other health complications. It is also believed Camp Lejeune water caused birth defects and wrongful death for thousands of unborn children exposed in utero.

Although the U.S. government has acknowledged that toxic chemicals contaminated the water at Camp Lejeune for decades, the new law still places the burden of proof on individual plaintiffs to establish that their specific injury was caused by toxic water, and the amount of any Camp Lejeune water contamination payout they should receive.

Claims have already been submitted by lawyers involving a wide range of Camp Lejeune injuries, including:

Camp Lejeune Cancers:

• 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 from Camp Lejeune Water:

• 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)

Reports suggest that over 45,000 veterans and family members have already submitted notice of intent to pursue a claim, which likely represents only a small fraction of the number of lawsuits that may eventually be filed in the North Carolina federal court before the Camp Lejeune lawsuit deadline approaches in August 2024.