Government Attorneys Estimate 117,000 Camp Lejeune Claims Can Cost $3.3 Trillion Dollars!
In a bizarre filing on October 27th, the governments attorneys, the same ones who ignored 117,000 administrative claims, now pretends to care about victims attorney fees. The same government that fought tooth and nail to throw out Camp Lejeune claims under the North Carolina Statute of Repose. The same government that covered up poisoning up to a million or more service members and their families for 30+ years. The same government that POISONED Camp Lejeune residents in the first place. The same government who had ample time to right perhaps the worst wrong, crime and coverup we know about.
The same government that is sneakily tricking Elective Option settlement claimants to certify that their claim falls under the Federal Tort Claims Act, and not a stand alone bill as The Camp Lejeune Justice Act. As if the claimants have any idea or legal understanding of that clause. The clause that can only be used by the Government to force Camp Lejeune claims under a law that gives them more tools and leverage to screw over victims and revictimize them.
I debated this issue internally for a while. Law firms charging 40% or even more seems like it's expensive - but the truth is - without plaintiffs firms, there would be ZERO dollars to go around.
Perhaps Congress or the Courts will cap fees, and I am not going to argue that point here - but to pretend the Governments lawyers care about the victims - when they could have paid them out for the last 13 months.
The question is, "Why do the governments attorneys care about legal fees for the other side?"
The answer is clear as day in the filing. They are trying to TIE THE HANDS of the Common Benefit Fund that the leadership law firms need to properly fight for their victims rights.
Leadership asked for 3% as a hold back to cover costs. If The government gets the Judge to agree that all Camp Lejeune Claims fall under the FTCA, they don't just cut the plaintiffs sides war chest to fight them in half, but they also enable dozens of other dirty tricks they have up their sleeves.
Ed Bell told me recently that the governments attorneys told him in the prior MDL that they wish they had the authority to pay out the victims. Well, they had the last 13 months to do so and instead ignored 117,000 administrative claims.
The real question is, do plaintiffs benefit more or less by trusting the same government that poisoned them?
If there weren't plaintiffs attorneys, no Camp Lejeune victims would get paid.
If you chose to file an administrative claim without an attorney - unless you had legal guidance, you may have capped your entire possible recovery by what you "demanded" in the filing. Most smart attorneys advised their clients to write in $25,000,0000 or $50,000,000 to make sure you didn't make a bad call - we'll see where that settlement math comes into play in a minute.
If you choose to accept the governments Elective Options, which completely ignore the suffering or harm they caused you, you would be getting less than 50% of what many attorneys estimate the damages should be for these cases. In fact, Parkinsons as an example, is estimated to be worth over $1,000,000 in damages, but the Elective Option only pays it out as few hundred thousand max.
If the Government cared about legal fees - they would actually offer fair settlements to everyone. The fact they exploit the attorney fees topic to sneakily convince the courts this is a normal FTCA claim is agregious. It is not helping any plaintiffs.
If you believe attorney fees should be capped, speak to your congressman or your attorney, fight for that right - but forcing the FTCA onto CLJA and PACT Act claims is just a dirty trick we know the defense is using because they snuck that clause into their elective option settlement agreements.
Here's what the attorneys for the Navy and DOJ wrote.
"
The Department of Justice estimates that the total amount demanded for the approximately 117,000 administrative claims currently filed with the Department of Navy is nearly $3.3 trillion. Settlements and judgments for CLJA claims and actions will be paid through the Judgment Fund. Even if the Judgment Fund pays only 1% of that amount—$33 billion—a 40% recovery for plaintiffs’ attorneys would total $13.2 billion (and a 3% Holdback would total nearly $1 billion). Section 2678 ensures that 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. The Court’s Common Benefit Order should balance the contributions of both common benefit work and non-common benefit work in light of the ultimate 25% fee cap on recoveries."
If you crunch that math - plaintiffs asked for an average of $28,000,000 in their administrative claims. This is great. But the math about 1% means they think victims who suffered only deserve $280,000 which is a shameful position to take when the government tortured the camp lejeune victims enough.
This is all about the attorney fees needed to fight for justice - and to force an empathetic cause like a politician into a law book they know better than anyone how to exploit.
Why not just make real and fair settlement offers to everybody. This legal gamesmanship is making me sick.
