If it feels like you’ve seen a lot of advertisements lately soliciting victims of Camp Lejeune’s tainted water, it’s because you have.
One of the people who proved to be most helpful in getting the Pact Act passed was then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).
In 2022, a provision was added to the “Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act” (PACT Act). It created a fund to compensate up to 500,000 former Marines and family members who may have been exposed to contaminated water while stationed at Camp Lejeune from the 1950s through the 1980s. Initial estimates put the cost to taxpayers at 6 billion, but the fund has no limit on payouts, and some projections are in the 9-figure range. The new law held the promise of justice for Lejeune victims — and also the promise of a boon for the lawyers who signed them up.
What has since been referred to as a “Wild West” of legal advertisement was unleashed: $145 million has been spent by law firms and their touts — known in the profession as “lead generators” — since 2022. That’s more than double what was spent on any mass tort advertising campaign before.
This new gold rush didn’t happen by accident. A new report from the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) reveals the people behind the coordinated plan to use Camp Lejeune victims to build what amounts to a new business model for personal injury attorneys. The “Wild West” is really the beginning of an entirely new taxpayer-funded liability landscape, the report shows. (READ MORE: Federal Spending: Where Are D.C.’s Fiscal Watchdogs?)
While news coverage of the PACT Act rightfully focused on compensating victims of U.S. government negligence, GAI’s new report details how trial lawyers lobbied lawmakers to add — or rather, forget to add — the usual caps on legal fees. The law allows them to receive uncapped fees on settlements from the government directly — with some firms, per the report, charging the marines and their families as much as 60 percent. This lets them bypass the court system, and the associated costs for the attorneys.
Situated amid the injured veterans and their families at the August 11, 2022 bill signing ceremony in the East Room of the White House was a South Carolina personal injury attorney named J. Edward Bell, III.
Ed Bell’s involvement in Camp Lejeune litigation began back in 2008, and he has had an enormous influence on subsequent legal challenges concerning Camp Lejeune’s water contamination issues. Bell’s aggressive awareness campaigns, culminating in alliances with key political figures, showcased his dedication to bringing the Camp Lejeune issue to the front of public consciousness.
Bell’s presence at the bill signing, the report details, underscored his singular involvement.
“We were told by the Department of Navy and others, in order to prevail and in order to have at least a chance of going to court, we have to change the laws,” said Bell at the bill signing ceremony. “So, we wrote the bill.”
Mr. Bell seems poised to collect handsome royalties for his work as an author.
One of the key lobbying battles, in which Mr. Bell and his plaintiffs’ bar colleagues ultimately prevailed, was over the fight to remove caps on the fees attorneys involved in the litigation might collect. An earlier version of the legislation featured a 25 percent fee cap, and subsequent efforts since the bill’s passing have called for caps to be implemented at anywhere from 17 to 33 percent of what is awarded to a successful claimant.
But the law, as it stands, features no caps on the fees lawyers like Mr. Bell can collect. That’s how he wanted it.
And, as he admitted, others helped him do it.
One of the people who proved to be most helpful in getting the Pact Act passed was then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). “The secret sauce in the House was Nancy Pelosi,” Ed Bell said at the signing of the bill. “She took this up individually and walked this through the House.” (READ MORE: Nancy Pelosi’s Other Legacy: A Mountain of Debt for Our Children)
Pelosi’s bill-walking efforts coincided with Bell’s hiring of her former chief of staff, Danny Weiss, to lobby for the PACT Act’s passage.
Weiss registered as a lobbyist for Cormac Group (a lobbying firm representing Bell Legal Group) on October 13, 2021, just before North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) introduced the Senate version of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act on November 4. Unlike the House’s version of the bill, Senator Tillis’s bill omitted attorney fee caps, benefiting Weiss’s clients. Lobbying records show Weiss lobbying on behalf of Bell’s clients for veterans’ affairs and mass tort litigation issues involving the Camp Lejeune Justice Act during the next three months. In all, Weiss was paid more than $700,000 by the Bell Group for his efforts.
Apparently, he was worth it.
On March 2, 2022, Pelosi issued a public statement championing the inclusion of the Camp Lejeune Justice Act in the PACT Act, which would ultimately go on to pass in the Senate and be signed into law by President Joe Biden five months later.
It was a victory for all parties. After decades of coverup and rejection, Camp Lejeune victims could finally get compensation for their health issues. But the biggest winners may prove to be lawyers like Ed Bell, who now get to exploit this lawsuit settlement “express lane” they lobbied to create.
Don’t expect to see fewer advertisements on TV seeking Camp Lejeune victims anytime soon. Some experts, according to Bloomberg, say the $145 million spent on advertising so far may double again. Hedge funds and litigation finance companies are treating the ad buys as investments, “with hopes of significant returns based on how well the lawsuits perform.”
The Wild West is now financed by Wall Street, with lawyers driving the wagon trains, and taxpayers picking up the tab.
