The filing deadline set forth in the Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) has passed. For that reason, the Department of the Navy is no longer accepting new CLJA claims. If you filed your CLJA claim by the August 10, 2024 filing deadline, then please log in to access your claim. If you are not able to access the Claims Management Portal, or if your CLJA claim is not accessible in the Claims Management Portal, then please contact the Camp Lejeune Claims Unit at CLClaims@us.navy.mil or (757) 241-6020. For more information regarding the CLJA filing deadline and answers to other frequently asked questions, please visit the Department of the Navy’s official CLJA website at www.navy.mil/clja.
Notice to All Filers Regarding CLJA Claim Settlement Acceleration Strategies
Background: The Camp Lejeune Claims Unit (CLCU) is advancing every Camp Lejeune Justice Act (CLJA) claim available for its review and continues working to extend settlement offers to every claimant whose claim contains the substantiation required to support a settlement offer. Over the last several months, CLCU identified three primary limiters impeding settlement progress. The Department of the Navy (DON) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to implement the strategies outlined below to mitigate those limiters and accelerate settlement efforts. The information below will also be available on the DON CLJA website.
- DON will streamline the claim substantiation/documentation requirements to expedite settlement offers to claimants who can prove they were on Camp Lejeune at a single point in time during the CLJA statutory period. This will involve reliance on documents that claimants frequently have in their personal files that are indicative of service of 30 days or more thereby avoiding delays associated with obtaining copies of service records. Under this approach, the CLCU will extend offers to eligible claimants based on 30 days of presence on Camp Lejeune. Claimants will still have the opportunity to provide additional documents to enhance their settlement offer by showing an extended duration of presence on Camp Lejeune.
- More than 550,000 CLJA claims were filed with the DON. 480,000 of those claims await final validation by law firms before the CLCU can review and advance those claims toward settlement. DON will eliminate that 480,000-claim bottleneck at the front end of the CLJA claims review process by moving every filed claim forward for review and processing. This communication provides notice to all law firms that all claims currently awaiting law firm validation will be advanced for CLCU review and processing effective January 13, 2025. This notice allows law firms time to conduct a final review of claims data and make any necessary corrections before January 13, 2025. Beginning on January 13, 2025, law firms will follow the formal amendment process to make any necessary corrections to CLJA claims.
- Of the 550,000 CLJA claims filed, more than 100,000 claims are “duplicates” where multiple law firms filed claims on behalf of the same claimants. CLCU will advance the first-in-time law firm-filed claim from each group of duplicates. In line with well-established Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) practice, CLCU will continue to request filing attorneys produce retainer agreements as proof of authorization to settle a CLJA claim on behalf of a claimant.
