Lawyers for Camp Lejeune toxic water victims are fighting what they say is a “misguided” effort by the government to ban jury trials in thousands of claims for compensation.
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In a motion filed Monday, Bloomberg Law is reporting that lead attorneys in the case argued that when Congress passed the Camp Lejeune Justice Act last year, it intended to give veterans, workers and others sickened by contaminated water on base a chance to tell their story to a jury.
The filing came in response to a motion filed by the government last month arguing that a plaintiff has a right to a jury trial “only where Congress has affirmatively and unambiguously granted that right.” It contends the Camp Lejeune Justice Act didn’t specify that, but rather only “appropriate relief” for victims.
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The act was intended to compensate people who spent at least 30 days at the base between 1953 and 1987 and blame their cancer or other sickness on its contaminated waters.
More than 129,000 claims have been filed with the Navy so far, and government lawyers say the demands in those claims alone already exceed $3.3 trillion.
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