THE BEST OF TIMES , THE WORST OF TIMES AT CAMP LEJEUNE
By Howard L . Nations
As we emerge mercifully from the chaos and quagmire of filing administrative claims , we find that our track 1 trial cases are advancing towards trials beginning in the Summer of 2025 . We also carefully observe the progress of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2024 in the House of Representatives , which involves the possibility of obtaining jury trials at the expense of the loss of a substantial portion of our fees . Some will regard recapturing the right to trial by jury as the best of times , while many will regard capping of our fees as the worst of times . And so it goes at Camp Lejeune .
The Camp Lejeune litigation is progressing simultaneously in multiple phases , including extensive discovery in preparation for trials in the Track 1 Trial Plaintiff cases ; closure of claim filing in the Department of Navy Claims Administration ; and game-changing legislation , the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2024 , pending in the United States House of Representatives .
Discovery- In the 25 Track 1 Trial Plaintiff cases , discovery by both parties proceeds apace . Fact discovery ended on August 11 , 2004 , during which the United States completed 100 depositions of plaintiffs plus 271 discovery depositions of fact witnesses , including physicians . The United States also produced almost 2 million files , consisting of more than 22.6 million pages of records .
Plaintiffs are pursuing scientific discovery through the National Academy Of Sciences , through which the Navy sponsored a 2009 study of associations between adverse health effects and the contaminated water at Camp Lejeune , known as the NRC 2009 Report .
Plaintiffs also seek discovery from the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry ( ATSDR ) pertaining to the Cancer Incidence Study . Dr . Frank Bove will be deposed on this important topic .
In addition to these specific scientific studies , the court has issued a scheduling order related to discovery and briefing deadlines for expert discovery on toxic chemical exposure over time by the water at Camp Lejeune , general causation , specific causation , and damages . The docket control Order runs through July 18 , 2025 , to complete expert discovery . This indicates that we cannot anticipate trials of Track 1 cases until August 2025 at the earliest .
Administrative Claims- By 11:59 P . M . on August 10 , 2024 , the Department of Navy had received more than 546,500 filed Administrative Claims . This number is inflated by a substantial number of duplicates filed by attorneys who could not locate their original filings in the portal . There were neither settlements nor settlement negotiations of these portal cases other than the Elective Option for hand-picked Plaintiffs .
This is significant because Congress included the Administrative Claim process in the original CLJA , which was to give Navy JAG the opportunity to settle
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