Bipartisan support is building for a bill that would revise a 2022 law allowing victims of contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune in North Carolina to seek damages from the government.
The legislation from two North Carolina Republicans, Rep. Greg Murphy and Sen. Thom Tillis, would make technical corrections to the law known as the Camp Lejeune Justice Act so plaintiffs could request jury trials, cases could be heard in more federal courts and attorneys fees could be capped at 25 percent.
Since the 2022 law was enacted, clearing the way for as many as a million people who were exposed to contaminated drinking water at the base between 1953 and 1987 to seek compensation for illnesses and deaths that resulted, more than 400,000 damage claims have been filed with the Navy and more than 2,800 lawsuits are pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
