Veterans Group Seeks Extension for Filing Claims in Agent Orange Case
A group representing Vietnam War veterans Wednesday asked a federal judge to extend the deadline for filing claims in the $180-million Agent Orange settlement until March 15.
Tod Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier, which represents 8,000 Vietnam veterans, said that about 180,000 claims were filed by the deadline Tuesday, “at least triple what most people involved in the case thought would be filed.”
Ensign said that he expected another 70,000 claims would be filed if the deadline were extended.
The motion was filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn with Judge Jack Weinstein, who approved the settlement last May between lawyers for veterans and seven chemical companies that made the dioxin-tainted defoliant.
The settlement, reached on the day a class-action suit against the chemical companies was to go to trial, calls for compensation of veterans and their families who believe they were harmed by the herbicide.
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