“A bill to amend the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022 to make technical corrections.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section makes technical corrections to Section 804 of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022, which provides a civil cause of action against the United States for death, disease, or other harm from exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, during the period beginning August 1, 1953, and ending December 31, 1987, as follows: (1) in subsection (b), strikes the venue requirement in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina and inserts “including a latent or potential harm” after “appropriate relief for harm”; (2) revises subsection (c) to establish the plaintiff’s burden of proof as showing (A) a relationship between a Camp Lejeune water contaminant and the harm (including latent or potential harm) and (B) presence at Camp Lejeune for at least 30 days (consecutive or not), with evidentiary standards met by evidence of a causal relationship or one at least as likely as not; (3) revises subsection (d) to provide exclusive jurisdiction in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina for coordinated or consolidated pretrial matters, allow transfer to any district court in the fourth judicial circuit for pretrial and trial (including evidentiary motions), require jury trial upon either party’s request, and mandate expedited disposition; (4) in subsection (e), replaces “latent disease” with “latent or potential harm” and revises paragraph (2) to bar offsets against CLJA awards for settlements before filing a civil action but require offsets (to the extent permitted by law) against awards for settlements or judgments after filing by related VA, Medicare, or Medicaid benefits for health care or disability from Camp Lejeune water exposure; and (5) adds subsection (k) to cap attorney fees at 20% of any pre-filing settlement or 25% of any post-filing judgment or settlement, allow proportional fee divisions between attorneys not in the same firm, and permit agreements for lower fees.
This section establishes a retroactive effective date of August 10, 2022 (the enactment date of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022), for this Act and its amendments, with applicability to any claim or action under section 804 of that Act (i.e., civil actions for personal injury or wrongful death due to exposure to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina) that is pending on, or filed on or after, the date of enactment.
This section provides that nothing in this Act or its amendments modifies the applicability or statute of limitations provisions under section 804(j) of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022. (The Camp Lejeune Justice Act authorizes tort claims against the United States for personal injury or death resulting from exposure to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, from August 1, 1953, to December 31, 1987.)