Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Claims Already Top $3 Trillion, US Says

Compensation claims filed by veterans and others who say they were sickened by toxic water at Camp Lejeune already total nearly $3.3 trillion, US Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing.

That figure was disclosed for the first time in a 17-page memo government lawyers filed Friday in a bid to limit legal fees collected by attorneys in the case, which is being litigated in the US District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Congressional budget analysts had previously projected the government could expect to pay out as much as $21 billion.

Read More: Bogus Claims Threaten To Taint Camp Lejeune Toxic Water Payouts

Veterans, base workers, and their relatives have until August 2024 to file a claim if they spent at least 30 days on the North Carolina Marine base between 1953 and 1987 and believe they were sickened by exposure to contaminated water.

More than 117,000 claims had been filed with the Navy by mid-October. Some will be paid under an early resolution program, but others will end up in trials as soon as next year.

Billions in Attorney Fees

Veterans advocates and others— including some members of Congress—have said some attorneys are demanding 30% or 40% of any award.

In its filing, the Justice Department lawyers said if the government paid just 1% of the demands so far, that would equal $33 billion, and the share going to plaintiffs’ attorneys could top $10 billion.

Friday’s filing came as the plaintiffs lawyers overseeing the case management asked the North Carolina court to approve a “common benefit order” and set up a structure to pay for expenses shared by all lawyers in the case.

What the government lawyers called a “statement of interest regarding attorneys fees” on that request was more specifically a justification of their intent to put limits on how much attorneys can charge for representing sick clients.

It argued for caps on legal fees following the guidelines in Federal Tort Claims Act, which limits attorney fees to 20% for administrative settlements, and 25% for claims resulting from litigation.

That would ensure “a greater portion of that money makes its way to the individual plaintiffs, in the same manner that Congress has directed for other tort claims against the United States,” said the filing, signed by Brian Boynton, a deputy assistant attorney general, and five lawyers from DOJ’s Environmental Torts Litigation section.

The battle over attorney fees has played out in Congress. Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has been among the critics of the legal fees, and introduced a bill to restrict such fees to 17%. Though that bill failed to get traction, Sullivan told Bloomberg Law he appealed to US Attorney General Merrick Garland to persuade the Justice Department to impose the Claims Act limits.

The plaintiffs leadership group has yet to file a reply to the government’s statement.

J. Edward Bell III, a South Carolina lawyer who was appointed the lead lawyer for Camp Lejeune cases this summer, has spent more than $3 million lobbying members of Congress, in part to keep such limits out of the law.

Bell last month told Bloomberg Law: “I don’t think the government ought to get involved in any kind of private business, whether it’s attorneys or doctors or anyone else.” He also said “the courts will eventually take care of” the issue of fees, but did not elaborate.

The case is: Camp Lejeune Water Litigation v. U.S., E.D.N.C., No. 7:23-cv-00897, Filing 10/27/23