Camp Lejeune Water Settlements: Elective Option Grid and Tiers

Camp Lejeune water settlement amounts under the Elective Option run from $100,000 to $450,000, set by which illness a claimant has and how long they were exposed to the contaminated water at the base. A qualifying death adds another $100,000. As of March 2026, the Department of Justice has approved 2,531 Elective Option offers totaling roughly $708 million, and it is approving more on a weekly basis.¹

The Elective Option Payout Grid

The Department of Justice and Department of the Navy built the Elective Option as a faster alternative to litigating each case individually. Rather than negotiating value claim by claim, the program pays fixed amounts driven by two variables: the seriousness of the illness (Tier 1 or Tier 2) and cumulative exposure time at Camp Lejeune or MCAS New River.²

The grid works like this:

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

If a qualifying injury resulted in death, an extra $100,000 is added to the grid amount.²

Which Conditions Fall Into Each Tier

The tiers reflect how strong the scientific evidence is linking a condition to the specific contaminants found in the base’s water. Tier 1 covers conditions where the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry found “sufficient” evidence of a causal connection. Tier 2 covers conditions where the evidence reaches the “equipoise and above” standard, meaning it is at least as likely as not that exposure caused the illness.²

Tier 1 qualifying injuries:

Kidney cancer
Liver cancer
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma
Leukemia
Bladder cancer

Tier 2 qualifying injuries:

Multiple myeloma
Parkinson’s disease
Kidney disease and end-stage renal disease
Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma)

If Your Condition Isn’t on the Grid

The Elective Option covers only those nine conditions. Cardiac birth defects are excluded from the program even though ATSDR found sufficient evidence of a causal link. A claim tied to a condition outside the grid is not automatically lost. It can still be resolved through the Navy’s standard administrative process, or, once the claim is denied or six months pass without a decision, filed as a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, the only federal court authorized to hear these cases.²³

Litigation takes longer and carries more uncertainty, but it has no predetermined cap on damages. A court judgment or negotiated settlement outside the Elective Option could exceed the grid amounts for a severe case. The catch is that non-EO settlements are subject to benefit offsets the Elective Option avoids.

How VA Benefits and Taxes Affect the Payout

Whether a settlement reduces existing VA disability payments depends on the path. Elective Option payments trigger no offset. The VA does not assert a lien on EO payments, and accepting one has no effect on disability compensation, health care, or other VA programs.⁴

Settlements reached through litigation or through the standard administrative process outside the Elective Option are different. Those amounts are reduced by any VA disability award, payment, or benefit related to Camp Lejeune water exposure. Depending on the size of the benefit, the offset can pull tens of thousands of dollars out of a litigation recovery.⁵

On taxes, Camp Lejeune settlements should generally be excluded from federal gross income. Damages received on account of personal physical injuries or physical sickness are not taxable under the Internal Revenue Code, whether paid as a lump sum or in periodic payments. Camp Lejeune claims are personal physical injury claims, so the exclusion applies. Any punitive damages awarded in a court case would be taxable.⁶

What Attorneys Can Take

Federal law caps contingency fees on Camp Lejeune claims. Under the Federal Tort Claims Act, an attorney’s fee cannot exceed 20% of any award or settlement resolved through the administrative process and 25% of any judgment or settlement obtained through a court lawsuit. The government’s position is that these caps apply to all Camp Lejeune Justice Act claims.⁷

The percentage is calculated on the net amount after any applicable benefit offsets. If a $400,000 litigation settlement is reduced by a $50,000 VA offset, the attorney fee is capped at 25% of the remaining $350,000. The federal cap overrides private fee agreements, and charging more is a federal misdemeanor.

Where Settlements Stand in 2026

Since January 2025 the government has paid out more than $421 million in Elective Option settlements, and the pace has been accelerating. The Navy is still overseeing roughly 408,000 pending administrative claims, and about 2,458 lawsuits have been filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina.¹

The first bellwether trials are expected in 2026, testing cases involving kidney cancer, bladder cancer, leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and Parkinson’s disease. Those outcomes will likely shape how the government values and settles the broader pool of claims. In the meantime, the Elective Option remains the fastest route to a check, and claims tied to conditions outside the grid face longer waits because they have to be resolved through individual negotiation or trial.

A Note on New Claims

New administrative filings are no longer being accepted. The Camp Lejeune Justice Act gave potential claimants two years from the law’s August 10, 2022, enactment to file, and that window closed on August 10, 2024. No federal legislation extending the deadline has been enacted as of early 2026. Claims filed before the cutoff remain active and continue moving through review and settlement.⁸

1
Department of Justice. Department of Justice Approves Historic Number of Settlements for Camp Lejeune Victims and Families
2
Department of the Navy. Public Guidance on Elective Option for Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claims
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. Chapter 171 – Tort Claims Procedure
4
United States Navy. Difference Between CLJA and VA Claims
5
Department of Justice. Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claims
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S.C. 104 – Compensation for Injuries or Sickness
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 U.S.C. 2678 – Attorney Fees
8
Department of the Navy. Camp Lejeune Justice Act Claims