Recent court documents show the U.S. Navy has received nearly 130,000 Camp Lejeune water contamination claims, but only a small percentage of them have been filed in the U.S. Eastern District Court of North Carolina.
It’s the only jurisdiction where such claims can be filed if the case is not resolved within 180 days after notice being presented to the U.S. Department of Navy. About 1,400 claims have been filed in that federal court.
The claims were made possible by the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, which President Joe Biden signed into law last year, opening a two-year window for lawsuits to be brought by anyone injured by contaminated water at the base.
The claims allege that military veterans, their families, and others that worked on base from the 1950s through the ‘80s developed cancers or other health conditions after exposure to toxic chemicals in the water at Camp Lejeune.
