Court Appoints Two Camp Lejeune Justice Act Settlement Masters To Facilitate Resolution of Claims

As the filing deadline for Camp Lejeune lawsuits approach, parties are looking at both settlement options and a series of bellwether trials to resolve the litigation.

A group of four federal judges who are overseeing all lawsuits and administrative claims over Camp Lejeune water contamination, have determined that two settlement masters are probably necessary to help speed up the slow claim resolution process, which has bogged down the litigation.

In August 2022, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) was signed into law, providing a two-year filing window for individuals who lived, served or worked on the North Carolina military base from the mid-1950s to late 1980s to seek financial compensation for various types of cancer and other ailments linked to toxic chemicals that contaminated the water supply.

That filing window closes in just a few weeks, on August 10, and the U.S. Government has already received notice that nearly 300,000 individuals intend to file lawsuits, which all must be brought in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Despite the introduction of an elective settlement option for Camp Lejeune lawsuits announced in September 2023, only a small number of claims have actually been successfully resolved.

Although many critics have argued the amount of compensation available through that elective option is insufficient, a recent report suggests that the Navy itself has confirmed only 136 Camp Lejeune water contamination claims may be eligible for a settlement offer, and only 105 individuals have actually had an offer to settle their claims extended. This represents only 0.004% of Camp Lejeune claims presented so far.

With resolutions lagging and the deadlines approaching, U.S. District Judges Richard E. Myers II, Terrence W. Boyle, Louise W. Flanagan and James C. Dever III issued a case management order (PDF) on July 9, assigning two settlement masters to work with the parties to resolve the litigation, Thomas J. Perrelli and Christopher G. Oprison.

“The Court has determined after careful consideration that at this time settlement of this litigation would best be served by appointment of both Mr. Perrelli and Mr. Oprison as Settlement Masters,” the Judges wrote. “They have advised the Court that they agree to serve jointly.”

Settling Camp Lejeune lawsuits is critical to avoid the need for hundreds of thousands of individual claims to go forward with bench trials, creating a significant financial and time burden on the Courts ad all parties involved. The special masters have been charged with helping to facilitate global settlement discussions, but do not have the power to adjudicate any issues impacting the litigation, the judges noted.

Camp Lejeune Track 1 Bellwether Trials Order

While the parties are working to determine if a global Camp Lejeune settlement program can be established, the Court is moving forward with a bellwether process, preparing several “tracks” of claims involving different categories of injuries for early trial dates, which are designed to help gauge how the Court may respond to certain evidence and testimony that is likely to be repeated throughout the litigation.

In October 2023, the Court established a Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Track 1 criteria, and the parties selected a group of 100 cases to go through early discovery involving the following five categories of injuries:

• Bladder cancer
• Kidney cancer
• Leukemia
• Parkinson’s disease
• Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

To help focus efforts, the Court recently directed the parties to narrow down the original list of 100 cases to a group of 25 claims that will be eligible for trial, including five cases from each of the five injury categories, with plaintiffs selecting three of the claims and the U.S. government selecting the other two.

On the same day the Camp Lejeune settlement masters were appointmented, the judges also issued a trial order (PDF), announcing the 25 cases selected for the Track 1 bellwether trial pool and setting an August 11, 2024, deadline for general discovery on these cases to be completed.

While the outcome of these early bellwether trials will not have a binding impact on other claims in the litigation, they will be closely watched by lawyers involved in the cases, as the average amounts of any Camp Lejeune lawsuit payouts awarded may help the parties in global settlement negotiations for various types of injuries.