Camp Lejeune Justice Act: Elective Option and Bellwether Trials

As of mid-2026, the Camp Lejeune Justice Act settlement process is moving, but at a pace almost everyone involved calls inadequate. The Department of the Navy received roughly 408,860 administrative claims by the August 10, 2024 filing deadline,¹ and only about 2,500 Elective Option settlement offers have been approved since the expedited program launched in September 2023. Another 3,718 lawsuits are pending in federal court in North Carolina, with bellwether trials expected later in 2026.

Where Elective Option Payouts Stand

The Elective Option is the administrative settlement track the DOJ and Navy created in September 2023 as an alternative to litigation. Claimants with a qualifying illness and documented exposure can accept a fixed payment based on a grid, skipping discovery and trial.²

In March 2026, the DOJ reported that 2,531 Elective Option offers had been approved since the program began, totaling roughly $708 million. The department said it had paid out more than $421 million in settlements since January 20, 2025.³ By April 2026, 2,056 offers had been accepted, with $543 million paid.⁴ The average accepted settlement is just under $300,000.¹

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said the DOJ has “reprioritized” settlements and committed to approving new offers on a weekly basis.³ In early June 2026, Woodward signed a memorandum making all 3,724 pending federal lawsuits eligible for consideration under the Elective Option, broadening who can take the fixed-payment route.⁴

What the Elective Option Pays

Payments are set by a grid combining illness tier and length of exposure. Tier 1 covers illnesses with the strongest scientific link to the contamination: kidney cancer, liver cancer, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, leukemias, and bladder cancer. Tier 2 covers multiple myeloma, Parkinson’s disease, kidney disease or end-stage renal disease, and systemic sclerosis or scleroderma.⁵

Tier 1, 30–364 days of exposure: $150,000
Tier 1, 1–5 years: $300,000
Tier 1, more than 5 years: $450,000
Tier 2, 30–364 days: $100,000
Tier 2, 1–5 years: $250,000
Tier 2, more than 5 years: $400,000

If the qualifying condition caused death, an additional $100,000 is added, bringing the maximum to $550,000. The diagnosis must have occurred before August 10, 2022, and must fall at least two years after first exposure and no more than 35 years after last exposure.⁵

Two features of the Elective Option matter for what you actually take home. Settlements under this track are not reduced by VA disability benefits or Medicare payments, a carve-out that does not apply to compensation won through a lawsuit. Attorney fees are capped at 20 percent for administrative claims and 25 percent for lawsuits.²

Why So Few Claims Have Been Resolved

The gap between 408,000 claims filed and roughly 2,500 offers approved is partly a paperwork problem and partly a pace problem.

Many claims were duplicative or incomplete. In October 2024, the Navy reported that most claims received “lacked the necessary paperwork to prove a medical diagnosis or show evidence the claimant was at Camp Lejeune for a minimum of 30 days.”⁶ By February 2026, only about 13,000 of the claims eligible for the Elective Option had submitted the three supporting documents required to move forward.⁷ If you have an open claim, the Navy’s Claims Management Portal, launched in April 2024, is where you upload records, track status, and communicate with the Camp Lejeune Claims Unit.⁸

Even for well-documented claims, the pace is slow. Advocates Mike Partain and Jerry Ensminger have pointed out that at roughly 2,353 offers over three years, addressing all 408,000 claims would take more than 400 years. As of February 2026, less than one percent of administrative claims had received a settlement offer.⁹ Attorney Andrew Van Arsdale told reporters that of 450 claims his firm submitted under the Elective Option two years earlier, the government had responded to only 40.⁴

Critics have also said the Elective Option’s 35-year latency cap excludes many claimants whose diseases appeared decades after exposure, and that the dollar amounts fall short for people with terminal cancers.¹

The Federal Lawsuits and Bellwether Trials

If you filed a claim and either received a denial or waited six months without action, you could file a federal lawsuit. All CLJA lawsuits are filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the exclusive venue set by the statute.¹⁰ As of early 2026, 3,718 lawsuits had been filed there, with 149 dismissed, most voluntarily.⁷

The caseload is split among four federal judges — Flanagan, Dever, Myers, and Boyle — each handling roughly 900 cases.¹¹ The court organized the litigation into tracks by illness. Track 1 covers 25 bellwether cases involving bladder cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and Parkinson’s disease. These test cases are meant to set how courts will handle contamination proof, general causation, and individual damages.¹²

Almost all 25 bellwether cases failed to settle at a mediation session in the summer of 2025 and are moving toward trial.¹ No trial dates have been set as of mid-2026. Expert discovery on water contamination, general causation, and specific causation has concluded, but disputes over the admissibility of water-modeling evidence and limitations on vapor intrusion testimony remain outstanding.¹¹ Advocates have accused the DOJ’s environmental litigation branch of slowing progress by filing “hundreds of motions.”⁹ The four judges have ruled consistently against government motions to dismiss, signaling their intent to move bellwether cases to trial later in 2026.

No Jury Trials

In February 2024, all four judges issued a joint ruling denying plaintiffs the right to jury trials. The court held that the Camp Lejeune Justice Act does not “unequivocally, affirmatively, and unambiguously” grant a jury right, and that Congress did not clearly depart from its standard practice of not permitting jury trials in suits against the United States.¹³ The ruling relied on the Supreme Court’s 1981 decision in Lehman v. Nakshian, which requires a clear statutory grant of jury rights in suits against the government.¹⁴ A petition challenging that decision reached the Supreme Court docket in 2024 and remained pending as of early 2026. Unless that changes, every CLJA case will be a bench trial.

A Bill That Could Change the Rules

Frustration with the pace has produced new legislation. In June 2025, Rep. Greg Murphy of North Carolina introduced the Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act, co-sponsored by Reps. Deborah Ross, Richard Hudson, and Brad Knott.¹⁵ Sen. Thom Tillis introduced a companion in the Senate.¹

The bill would explicitly provide for jury trials, expand venue to any federal court in North or South Carolina rather than funneling all cases into one district, and cap attorney fees at 25 percent. As of July 2025, Murphy’s bill had 32 co-sponsors from both parties.¹⁶ Neither the House nor Senate version has advanced out of the Judiciary Committee as of mid-2026.¹

Offsets and Scam Warnings

Two practical items worth knowing while your claim is pending.

First, offsets. Court-awarded compensation obtained through litigation, outside the Elective Option, may be reduced by VA disability payments and Medicare benefits previously received for the same conditions.² Advocates have pushed back on how those offsets are calculated, particularly whether they should apply to future benefits.⁹ Pursuing a CLJA claim does not affect your existing or future VA benefits or health care.¹⁷

Second, fraud. The DOJ and Navy issued a joint fraud alert in January 2024. Official Navy communications about claims come only from CLClaims@us.navy.mil or (757) 241-6020. The government will never ask you for money.²

The Filing Window Is Closed

If you have not already filed, you cannot file now. The deadline for submitting a claim was August 10, 2024, and the Navy is no longer accepting new claims.¹⁸ The updates above concern claims already in the system, whether sitting in the administrative queue at the Navy or filed as lawsuits in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

1
Roll Call. Victims of Camp Lejeune’s Tainted Water Inch Closer to Amends
2
Department of Justice. Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claims
3
Department of Justice. Department of Justice Approves Historic Number of Settlements for Camp Lejeune Victims and Families
4
Spectrum News. Camp Lejeune Water Marine Veteran
5
U.S. Navy. Public Guidance Elective Option CLJA
6
ABC 33/40. Navy Receives Over 550,000 Claims Under Camp Lejeune Justice Act, Many Duplicative
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Camp Lejeune Lien Resolution. CLJA Settlement Status Update February 2026
8
U.S. Navy. Navy Announces Updated Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claims Management Portal
9
Public Radio East. Prominent Advocates for Camp Lejeune Water Contamination Victims Contest DOJ Claim That Process Is Speeding Forward
10
U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina. Camp Lejeune Water Litigation
11
Motley Rice. Fall 2025 Camp Lejeune Status
12
Justia. In Re Camp Lejeune Water Litigation
13
Roll Call. Jury Trials Denied in Camp Lejeune Lawsuits
14
Supreme Court of the United States. McBrine Opposition Brief
15
Office of Rep. Greg Murphy. Murphy Introduces Bipartisan Ensuring Justice for Camp Lejeune Victims Act
16
Roll Call. Murphy, Tillis Gain Support for Bill on Camp Lejeune Litigation
17
Department of Veterans Affairs. New Measure for Camp Lejeune File Lawsuits
18
U.S. Navy. Camp Lejeune Justice Act