People who worked or lived at Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 can seek compensation for their physical ailments caused due to contaminated water.
The Camp Lejeune Justice Act makes this possible. It has been added to the Honoring Our PACT Act of 2022. Additionally, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) shared that the overall compensation for eligible claimants might amount to approximately 6.1 billion dollars.
The Judgement Fund is the source of all funds. It’s a permanent appropriation that’s available for paying the financial rewards against the U.S. that gets administratively or judicially ordered. All the payments get done depending on the individual circumstances of the claimant.
Can The Camp Lejeune Lawsuit Negatively Impact VA Disability?
The PACT Act and the Justice Act wouldn’t impact any individual having VA disability advances. But the payments can offset the overall compensation money that veterans get from a Camp Lejeune lawsuit. Any benefit you get can affect the compensation, which includes payments from:
- Medicaid
- Medicare
- VA disability
The U.S. government wants to ensure that the victims don’t receive a double recovery. The compensation for any Camp Lejeune lawsuit shouldn’t lead to double benefits for the veterans. Every benefit source should get focused on while deciding the overall payment for the lawsuit.
Receiving the benefits doesn’t restrict any person from filing a lawsuit, depending on the polluted water from Camp Lejeune, as it doesn’t negatively impact the veteran’s capacity to get payments. It’s because the VA disability benefits don’t depend on income. Hence, your earning is not a factor, irrespective of the way you get it.
According to TorHoerman Law, a personal injury law firm, you can file a claim if your loved one has developed ailments like bladder, liver, kidney cancer, or other illnesses after exposure to the polluted Camp Lejeune water. Anybody who stayed in this area for about 30 days between 1953 and 1978, and has physical suffering, can consult a lawyer for a free consultation. It will help them to know whether they qualify for the claim.
The Conditions That Can Get Reimbursed by The Camp Lejeune Lawsuit
Every person affected by Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune drinking water developed various medical conditions. There are some “presumptive conditions” in-built into the law which determine the ones who will get the benefits. The conditions include:
- Parkinson’s disease
- Adult leukemia
- Kidney cancer
- Aplastic anemia and any other type of myelodysplastic syndrome
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
- Multiple myeloma
- Liver Cancer
- Bladder Cancer
Even family members who have specific conditions can get qualified for the Veterans benefit. The list of medical conditions for this are:
- Birth defects
- Breast cancer
- Female infertility
- Oesophageal cancer
- Miscarriage
- Neurobehavioral effects
- Hepatic steatosis
- Renal toxicity
- Lung cancer
- Scleroderma
Even though all these conditions aren’t presumed, there is still some connection between the toxic water in Camp Lejeune and medical conditions.
Is It Possible to Take Away VA Benefits?
In all probabilities, the Camp Lejeune lawsuit will not affect the VA disability amount you get. More so when you already have received all these benefits. But there can be a few situations when veterans might lose their VA advantages.
One of the prominent ones is incarceration. In this situation, the VA disability advantage will get minimized when the veteran gets convicted of a felony, which makes the person be in jail for 60 days or more. People with a 20% disability rating or even more will have a reduction of 10%. And the ones who have a disability rating of 10% can even become 5%.
When the veterans get free from jail, they can reinstate complete benefits. However, this reinstatement is dependent on how severe the disability is.
Fortunately, the benefits don’t get less for veterans residing in their hallway houses or those under community control or working in the work release programs. All the pension benefits will get terminated on the 61st day of jail. It is even possible for the veterans to lose all pension benefits when they aren’t able to update the VA of incarceration.
In the majority of legal cases, the benefits will become less rather than null. But several disability ratings get protections. Hence it can’t get reduced till there is any sign of fraud or severe circumstances.
Conclusion
Do you have VA benefits? If yes, and you are thinking of various choices for compensation after getting exposed to the polluted Camp Lejeune water, it’s best to get connected with a personal injury lawyer.
It will assist you in navigating the process, which comprises taking a tort action and collecting medical evidence. You will also get practical legal advice that is beneficial.
