a substantial percentage of cases to reduce the workload on the judges . However , from its inception , Navy Jag indicated that it did not have the workforce , the technology , or the budget to undertake settlement negotiations , so there would be none . At our initial meeting with the Court in April 2023 , the Judge was upset to learn that not a single settlement offer had been made to a Plaintiff in the eight months since the bill was passed , and there was no plan for settlement negotiations by either Navy JAG or the Department of Justice .
To allay the Court ’ s anger , the DOJ and DON devised the Elective Option grid as a means of opening settlement negotiations . On even cursory examination , the Elective Option turned out to be a system through which the government could hand pick veterans whom they thought were financially desperate enough to accept pennies on the dollar for their valuable Tier 1 cases , e . g ., $ 100,000 for a Parkinson ’ Disease case ; $ 150,000 for leukemia ; or kidney cancer for $ 150,000 .
The Elective Option experiment has not been as successful as the DOJ / DON hoped . Of the first 323,135 claims filed , DON identified only 137 claimants that may be eligible for an Elective Option settlement offer . DON extended 109 settlement offers , which resulted in 64 settlements . Recently , DOJ has paid $ 23,400,000 for 98 settled cases , averaging $ 243,750 per case . To date , 46 % of the offers made for cases in litigation and 61 % of the offers made for the claims at the Administrative level have been accepted .
Despite the nominal number of successful settlements , the E / O campaign has been successful from the viewpoint of trial scientists in that the values listed in the E / O criteria have now become embedded in the minds of the factfinders as reference points for the value of the Tier 1 E / O cases . For example , when the Judges see the nine tier 1 E / O cases : kidney cancer , liver cancer , Non- Hodgkin lymphoma , leukemias , bladder cancer , multiple myeloma , Parkinson ’ s disease , kidney disease ( ESRD ), systemic
64 x The Trial Lawyer sclerosis , or systemic / scleroderma , their unconscious mind will automatically associate the diseases with the E / O case values : $ 100,000 , $ 150,000 , $ 250,000 , $ 300,000 , $ 400,000 or $ 450,000 . This extremely low dollar range of recovery will unconsciously become their starting point in assessing damages in the absence of Plaintiff ’ s more sensible , much higher values .
Our judges are exposed to these diseases and their low-dollar reference points constantly as additional cases settle . These case values are cited by the Magistrate and written up in each Status Report . You are in trouble when the Court begins citing the Defense ’ s low reference point values in official Court documents .
Many lenders and vendors have adopted these low values as the projected settlement values in the cases because these are the only numbers they see published in a grid and distributed by the DOJ as a Court document .
As Plaintiffs in a jury case , we always work our reference point case value into the juror questionnaire , voir dire examination , and opening so when each juror begins forming their own trial story about the case ; ours is generally the first value that they consider .
With Judges sitting as factfinders , I suggest that we point out the FSIA verdicts being issued out of the District Courts of the District of Columbia to Wounded Warriors and Gold Star families who are wounded and killed by terrorist organizations . Since 2016 , when FSIA was enacted , numerous federal judges sitting as factfinders have awarded millions of dollars to clients whose lives , like our present clients , have been destroyed by the egregious conduct of the defendant . Significantly , every judge who handles these cases awards verdicts in the range of ten million dollars to these young soldiers and their families . We should offer a Damages Brief to our Judges with detailed citations to the District of Columbia Courts ’ adopted methodologies of calculating and awarding damages . That is a powerful reference point . Additionally , there are striking similarities between the dockets : Plaintiffs are veterans who were injured or killed by the egregious conduct of the defendant ; verdicts are paid by the United States government ; Camp LeJeune directly and Wounded Warriors out of the USVSST fund , which is funded by the U . S . Government .
Finally , in the Elective Option grid , the Department of Justice is offering a clear guide to the cases that they intend to negotiate for settlement : those that are supported by adequate science , acknowledged in the ATSDR as Tier 1 , and those diseases that are supported by expert testimony that can clear Daubert . Why should the DOJ pay a claim not supported by expert testimony that qualifies under Daubert .
One cautionary tale : ATSDR is not the final authority , nor is their Tier 1 list of diseases the only cases that may qualify with an expert under Daubert . The fact that a disease was not identified as Tier 1 in the ATSDR may be because they chose not to test that particular disease . It may also be that there were insufficient studies to judge the disease .
The solution to qualifying additional diseases for settlement or trial is to hire an epidemiologist who will update the ATSDR data with respect to your selected disease to determine if new studies have been completed that produced new scientific support to qualify the disease through your expert under Daubert . Since the 2018 ATSDR , there have been multitudes of additional disease studies , particularly since many of the studies cited in the 2018 ATSDR were conducted in 2011 or 2012 . These could easily be updated with the fresh scientific studies needed to qualify other diseases for compensation .
Camp Lejeune Act of 2024 The most substantial factor in determining the future of Camp Lejeune litigation is the legislation pending in the House of Representatives , known as the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2024 . In this proposed legislation , Ed Bell , lead counsel of the CLJ litigation , joined forces with friendly Republicans in the House of Representatives to attempt a technical correction of