Hundreds of toxic water lawsuits have been filed in the Eastern District of North Carolina, and thousands have filed claims through Camp Lejeune's administrative process. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has therefore requested an extension of their deadline to answer each plaintiff's complaint and has presented protocols to help facilitate a coordinated pretrial process and prevent potentially conflicting rulings.
The legal complexity of the extensive number of lawsuits concerning contaminated water led Camp Lejeune lawyers to file a motion for consolidation. This motion asked that the cases be assigned to one judge for pretrial procedures and that the judges create special standards guiding attorneys through the process. These benchmarks are meant to distinguish between cases with claims that will likely be accepted and those which the government will not concede.
The DOJ has been granted an extension until May 31, 2023, to file individual responses. This signals it will rule favorably on the motion to consolidate the pretrial proceedings, which will really change the landscape of the litigation and be a small step forward to eventual Camp Lejeune settlement offers from the government.