good morning I'm Robert Chisholm with the law firm at Chisholm Chisholm in Kilpatrick joining
me today is Sarah papantonio from the law firm of Levin papantonio Sarah welcome thank you for
having me and we're here today to discuss Camp Lejeune the issue of the litigation offsets
and VA benefits so what is the Camp Lejeune litigation so veterans are the families who
were stationed at or lived on Camp Lejeune North Carolina between August 1st 1953 and
December 31st 1987 for at least 30 cumulative days not consecutive days any 30-day period
And if they develop certain cancers or other conditions may now be eligible for compensation
and thanks to the Camp Lejeune Justice act those eligible can file a claim in the United
States district court for the eastern district of North Carolina however compensation is subject to
offsets for federal benefits for the claimed conditions such as VA or Medicare benefits for
the condition caused by Camp Lejeune exposure so Sarah how long does someone have to file a claim
so this is all going to be laid out by what is called the Camp Lejeune Justice act that is what
gives us the ability to bring these claims now 40 years later and with a Camp Lejeune Justice
act tells us is that we have two years from the date of enactment of the of that bill to file
these claims so that bill was passed in August of 2022 meaning that we have until August of
2024 to file these claims after that fact after that date you cannot proceed further with any
of these claims so you have two years to file all right so essentially any veteran who meets
these qualifications now has this two-year window that began in August of 2022. that's correct okay
so how will the Camp Lejeune claims and the litigation work because I understand there's
a two-step process there's the so-called administrative claim and then there's the
litigation piece that's exactly right we have to we have to turn to the Camp Lejeune Justice
act which tells us exactly how we're going to proceed with these claims the first requirement
is that we file what's called an administrative claim or a claims form with the Department of
Navy the department of Navy will then have the opportunity to resolve the claim at What's called
the administrative level before litigation or they can deny that claim and have you proceed to
litigation so if once we meet that administrative requirement then what we will do if we're not able
to resolve it is file that claim in litigation in federal court and litigate that claim in full
so many veterans are used to filing claims with the VA and they file them on their own or they
could hire a representative what do you recommend in terms of the administrative part of the claim
because I'm guessing there's some technicalities here you're exactly right and and this isn't the
traditional VA benefits claim that you can do on your own this claims form has a lot of hidden
nuances and a whole lot of hidden defects that can later affect your ability to pursue injuries
and damages in litigation so while it may seem like you can fill out this form on your own to
its fullest it can ultimately have greater effects down the road so we always recommend
that you have an attorney take a look at your claims form review it even write it so that
they know how to avoid those nuances and defects that could have harmed your claim in the future
so for example um let's just take one example I know in another area the federal torts claim act
for example there's a administrative process and there's a litigation process and if that form at
the administrative level isn't completed properly for example if you don't put a number of Damages
that's high enough you're then Bound by that number so if you said I'm only entitled to ten
thousand and then you go and litigate the case and get a million dollar reward you're limited
to that ten thousand dollar amount it's something like that's exactly the ones that we're talking
about here yeah that's exactly right and you can be thrown out procedurally in federal court if
that claims form is not filled out correctly so it can just totally nullify your claim entirely and
that's what we want to avoid we just want you to have the opportunity to review your claim with an
attorney so that they can give you the green line of whether or not this should be then submitted
okay so the other thing that many veterans are wondering and their families are wondering is
what is the impact of filing one of these claims for Camp under the Camp Lejeune Justice act on
their VA benefits and simplifying can't believe you and claim does not impact the VA benefits you
don't lose your benefits by filing a claim if the government offers Your settlement you will
have the opportunity to evaluate the settlement as well as any potential offsets to VA benefits
if it's not a good deal for you you don't have to accept it it is our goal that a settlement is
worth your while regardless of any offset issues in any event the decision on whether to accept
a settlement is ultimately the veterans accept it go ahead yeah yeah I just want to talk about that
offset for a minute because I get those questions all the time and I think that you can can add on
to that so our understanding of what the offset is and this is a clause in the Camp Lejeune Justice
act that ultimately says any settlement received will be offset by any benefits received from the
VA and what that means is that if you have been paid out disability benefits for an injury that
has been directly related to Camp Lejeune and that's the important part directly related to
Camp Lejeune exposure then we ultimately have to pay that back to the VA all it means is that
you can't double dip in the pot if the VA has paid something to you you have to pay them back but the
important part about this is that those it's those injuries that have been directly related by the
VA to your Camp Lejeune exposure and there's not many of those out there so so the offsets aren't
necessarily going to apply to the greater majority of these claims but it's something you need to
be aware of and I think Robert you can probably um touch on that a bit so let's give an example
let's suppose a veteran is 100 service connected and receiving over three thousand dollars a month
for post-traumatic stress disorder not related to Camp Lejeune they were fighting in a combat area
and they have PTSD that kind of a benefit is not going to be offset by the Camp Lejeune Justice Act
and so it's really important to understand that only those benefits that have been service
connected as a result of Camp Lejeune exposure would be the ones that would be offset and we
don't know precisely how VA is going to go about offsetting those those things might be compromised
by VA as at this point it's too soon to tell but we do know that fact that if it's something other
than uh as a result of exposure to Camp Lejeune it will not be offset so yeah go ahead let me
just yeah and and what we also know is that you are entirely in control of your settlement if
you are offered a certain amount and what you do the calculations and it just isn't going to fit
based on any offset or any VA disability benefits that you're receiving and you just you don't think
it's fair to you guess what we can go back and try again and so that's what I think uh people really
need to understand is that you are in control to some degree over what settlement you settle for
the one thing we're certain about is you only have this two-year window to find out the answer
to what you're entitled to under the the Camp Lejeune Justice act and if you don't file within
this two years you will lose your opportunity to do so so at a minimum we're recommending
that veterans at least file the administrative claim potentially go into court figure out what
that amount is but don't lose this once in a lifetime opportunity that's exactly right
so veterans and their families can fill out can fill out our form to find out if they're
eligible it'll be on our website we're available to answer any additional questions you may have
and be on the lookout for our follow-up videos addressing the commonly asked questions regarding
this lawsuit Sarah thank you for joining us any final comments from you the only thing I want
to say is is what a lot of people don't realize is that the Camp Lejeune Justice act applies not
only to Veterans but veterans and their families wives husbands children mothers fathers who are
exposed to Camp lejeune's water so it's wonderful that we've got all these veterans who are going
to be able to seek some kind of settlement or recovery from this but it's even better that we
have their family members who have the opportunity to pursue this as well so keep that in mind when
you're looking at these claims so anyone who was living on the base for 30 days is eligible during
that window from 1953 to 1987. correct okay okay Sarah thank you very much for joining us
I'm Robert Chisholm from cck Sarah Pap Antonio from Levin papantonium and thank you thank you
laughs