Pasini, 73, enlisted in March of 1968. He was discharged in 1970 after serving in Vietnam and Okinawa, his health slowly deteriorating soon after.
“I’d been in Camp Lejeune… and in Vietnam areas that could’ve been sprayed with Agent Orange, so I developed primary progressive multiple sclerosis,” he said.
But this law established a two-year window in which to bring otherwise-barred lawsuits. That is one reason for the “hurry up” messaging in those personal injury lawyer ads seeking out plaintiffs. In fact, the advertising campaign kicked off long before the law was even adopted, meaning that personal injury lawyers were soliciting clients to bring lawsuits that were not even viable at the time the ads were running.
Maybe you’ve seen the lawyer ads on TV. For a period of some 35 years, a million people were potentially exposed to contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, the Marines base camp in North Carolina. Since 2017, veterans from that era are presumed to have service-related illnesses from drinking that water. Now the Veterans Affairs Department inspector general has found the Veterans Benefits Administration hasn’t done a great job of processing those claims. The Federal Drive with Tom Temin gets the details from the deputy IG for audits and inspections, Brent Arronte.
The PACT Act also includes important updates for Vietnam era veterans. Specifically, two new presumptive conditions and additional Agent Orange and radiation presumptive locations are now covered. Veterans who may have previously been denied benefits for these new presumptive conditions may make a supplemental claim, a Vietnam veteran can refile a claim for hypertension, for example.
Two major types of errors were discovered in the Camp Lejeune disability claims process. Errors involving about 2,300 claims were made by staffers who assigned an incorrect effective date for benefit entitlement. Overall, the report said, veterans were underpaid at least $13.8 million in benefits for granted claims because VA regional office staff did not assign the earliest effective date permitted by federal regulation.
The bill redefines many conditions as "presumptive" — meaning the department will automatically consider those conditions a result of military service. A full list of presumptive conditions is available at VA.gov/PACT.
In this segment of Law Talk, Anna Czarples will be discussing the Camp Lejeune Justice Act, which recently passed Congress and went into effect after President Biden signed it in August. She will discuss who it affects and what it means for members of the military that were exposed to chemicals in the water. Some of the chemicals that were found in the water included Benzene. She also discusses some of the effects of exposure to these chemicals.
A recent example of legislation the VFW advocated for nationally is the PACT Act, which expanded Veterans Affairs (VA) health care and benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxic substances, according to the VA website.
“Administrative challenges should never prevent veterans from accessing the critical care and benefits they deserve. Congress must take action – that’s why I’m helping introduce this bill to address the backlog of personnel records to ensure veterans can swiftly process their claims and access the benefits they have earned.
McDonough and the group discussed the Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act — a law passed Aug. 8 providing benefits to veterans exposed to burn pits and toxins during their service, and access to other V.A. programs.