Details of Camp Lejeune Settlements May Not Be Included in Status Reports to Court

The U.S. Navy has only made Camp Lejeune settlement offers to a small fraction of the more than 300,000 water contamination injury claims presented by Marine veterans and family members injured at the base.

The four U.S. District Judges presiding over all Camp Lejeune lawsuits have told the parties they do not need to reveal confidential terms of settlements reached to resolve claims, when providing the court with status reports for ongoing negotiations in the massive litigation.

More than 325,000 U.S. Marine veterans, family members and other individuals exposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune have already come forward to seek financial compensation for various types of cancer and other ailments. However, as the two year filing deadline under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) approaches on August 10, 2024, it is widely expected that an influx of claims will be presented, likely making the sprawling litigation one of the largest mass torts in U.S. history.

The litigation currently is being overseen by U.S. District Judges Richard E. Myers II, Terrence W. Boyle, Louise W. Flanagan and James C. Dever III, all from the Eastern District of North Carolina, who directed the parties early in the pretrial proceedings to provide regular status reports on Camp Lejeune settlement efforts, including information about individual and global resolutions.

Although reports suggest that the U.S. government has only extended Camp Lejeune offers to a small fraction of all claims filed, the Court recently clarified that the parties do not need to disclose confidential terms in future reports.

Faced with the slow pace of resolving claims, the court appointed two Camp Lejeune settlement masters last month, to work with the parties to resolve the litigation.

In a court order (PDF) issued on July 29, the judges confirmed that information presented at regular conferences and in status reports should not include the disclosure of confidential settlement information, in order “to protect the integrity of the settlement negotiations facilitated by the Settlement Masters.”

However, the restrictions do not apply to any statistical information provided on the number of Camp Lejeune settlements reached by the government and settlement offers made on its own initiative, without the involvement the Special Masters.

Late last week, the parties submitted a status report (PDF), indicating that the U.S. Department of Navy has only identified 137 claims that they independently determined may be eligible for a settlement offer, out of nearly 325,000 administrative claims that have been filed so far.

August 2024 Camp Lejeune Lawsuits Update

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. The court has set an August 11, 2024, deadline for completion of general discovery on the 25 selected cases.

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.