Final steps made in military veteran settlement case before amount is approved
Posted Jun 20, 2014 12:41:45 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – The Federal Court in Halifax has reserved a decision in two class-action lawsuit settlements involving RCMP and military veterans with disabilities.
Lawyers for the veterans and the federal government were in court today seeking the approval of settlements worth $70 million for retired RCMP officers and $38.6 million for military veterans.
The RCMP case involves officers whose long-term disability payments were cut by the same amount they received in monthly disability pension payments through Veterans Affairs.
Canadian Forces veteran, Dennis Manuge said it’s been a long haul, and he’s glad it’s coming to a close.
“Most certainly a long time coming, and I just want to go home and share my life with my beautiful little girl and my beautiful wife, and I’m just really happy,” he said.
The settlement amount will cover 14,000 military veterans if approved.
Last year, lawyer Dan Wallace reached an a $887.8 million agreement with the government on the cost of living provisions for military vets.
The other class-action case involves disabled RCMP
Dan Wallace, the lawyer for both groups, says the case involving 1,000 RCMP vets is worth about $70 million and includes the value of future benefits to the class.
The case involves officers whose long-term disability payments were cut by the same amount they received in monthly disability pension payments through Veterans Affairs.
Wallace says another agreement worth $38.6 million has been reached with federal lawyers on cost of living provisions for military vets who were awarded an $887.8-million settlement last year.
At issue in that case was a long-standing federal practice of clawing back the military pensions of injured soldiers by the amount of disability payments they received.
