Published September 18, 2026
An attorney representing six Camp Lejeune Elective Option claimants has asked a federal judge to intervene before a September 27, 2026 deadline, arguing the government miscalculated their settlement offers by placing them in the wrong exposure-time category. According to the motion, four veterans with certified military records showing more than a year stationed at Camp Lejeune were instead scored in a shorter, 30-to-364-day exposure band — a mistake attorney James Foster says cut one client's offer from an expected $300,000 to $150,000, and another's from $400,000 to $250,000. Two additional clients were told they were ineligible, with the government citing only "evidence insufficiency."
Foster is asking the court to keep his six clients from being treated as having rejected their offers while the dispute is pending, and to hold a hearing before the September 27 deadline arrives. He has said other claimants have since reached out to his firm describing similar discrepancies.
The Justice Department opposed the request on several grounds, arguing the Elective Option is a voluntary settlement framework rather than a binding legal entitlement, that its public guidance creates no enforceable rights for claimants, and that federal courts cannot compel the government to settle a case on a claimant's preferred terms or to explain its internal settlement determinations. In the government's view, judicial review of individual Elective Option offers is inappropriate.
The Elective Option was created under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act as a faster, formula-based alternative to full litigation for people who developed certain diseases after exposure to contaminated water at the North Carolina Marine Corps base between the 1950s and 1980s — water the CDC estimates may have affected over a million people. More than 400,000 claims have been filed under the Act. Offers under the program are timed and expire if not accepted, which is what puts pressure on claimants who believe their offer was calculated incorrectly: accepting a low offer may forfeit the ability to seek more, while missing the deadline while disputing it carries its own risk.
This dispute is separate from the broader push toward a global Camp Lejeune settlement — judges overseeing the litigation have set an October 30, 2026 deadline for the parties to reach a framework covering the litigation track. The Elective Option dispute affects a narrower group: claimants who already received individual settlement numbers and believe those numbers are wrong.
If you filed a Camp Lejeune claim and believe your Elective Option offer doesn't reflect your actual time at the base, see Atumio's Camp Lejeune case page for a free eligibility review, or start your case review directly.