How to File a Military Lawsuit or Report Misconduct

If you want to file a military lawsuit or report misconduct, the right channel depends on who you are and what happened. Civilians, military dependents, and retirees injured by government negligence file a Federal Tort Claims Act claim on Standard Form 95 before any lawsuit. Active-duty service members are blocked from most lawsuits by the Feres doctrine but can file administrative claims for military medical malpractice, whistleblower reprisal, or employment violations. Fraud, waste, and abuse go to the DoD Inspector General hotline. Each path has its own form, deadline, and office, and picking the wrong one can cost you the claim.

Who Can Sue the Military and Who Cannot

The Feres doctrine, from the 1950 Supreme Court decision in Feres v. United States, bars active-duty service members from suing the federal government under the Federal Tort Claims Act for injuries that arise “incident to service.”¹ For decades, courts have used it to dismiss suits over medical malpractice in military hospitals, unsafe conditions on bases, sexual assault, and wrongful death, no matter how serious the negligence, as long as the service member was on active duty and not on furlough.

The practical result:

Civilians, military dependents, retirees, and veterans injured by government negligence generally can sue under the FTCA after filing an administrative claim first.
Active-duty service members generally cannot sue over service-related injuries. Their only route for military medical malpractice is the administrative claim created by the SFC Richard Stayskal Act.
Service members can pursue whistleblower reprisal complaints, USERRA employment claims, and SCRA enforcement regardless of Feres.

The Ninth Circuit opened a narrow crack in 2022. In Spletstoser v. Hyten, the court ruled that a sexual assault in a hotel room during personal time was not “incident to service,” finding it “unimaginable” that the plaintiff was under orders to submit to sexual advances.² The ruling binds only the Ninth Circuit.³

How to File a Federal Tort Claims Act Claim

The FTCA is the main vehicle for suing the military over negligence that caused personal injury, wrongful death, or property damage. You cannot go straight to court. You have to file an administrative claim first.

Use Standard Form 95. SF-95 is the standard claim form for damage, injury, or death. It is not strictly mandatory, but it is the expected format.⁴
Include a sum certain. You must state a specific dollar amount. Without one, the submission does not count as a valid claim.⁴
File within two years. The claim must reach the agency within two years of the date of injury or loss.⁵
Send it to the right branch. Army claims go through the U.S. Army Claims Service. Navy and Marine Corps claims go to the Tort Claims Unit Norfolk.⁶⁷
Then you can sue. If the agency denies the claim, you have six months to file suit in federal court. If the agency sits on it, you can file suit any time six months after submitting the claim.⁵

FTCA cases are decided by a federal judge, not a jury. Punitive damages are not available. You can recover economic losses like medical bills, funeral costs, and lost income, plus non-economic damages like loss of companionship.⁸ For injuries or deaths that occurred outside the United States, the Military Claims Act provides a separate but related process, also using SF-95.⁹

How Active-Duty Members File a Medical Malpractice Claim

Because Feres blocks lawsuits, Congress created a separate administrative path for active-duty service members injured by military doctors. The SFC Richard Stayskal Military Medical Accountability Act, included in the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, allows active-duty members to file compensation claims for malpractice in non-combat settings. It is retroactive to January 1, 2020.¹⁰

Important limits to understand before you file:

The law did not overturn Feres. You cannot take a denial to federal court. The Department of Defense’s decision is the final word.
Approval rates have been low. Across the services, 597 claims were filed in the reporting period cited. The Army approved 12 of 258, the Navy 3 of 188, and the Air Force 5 of 151.¹⁰
Even SFC Stayskal’s own claim was denied. The Army acknowledged the standard of care was not met but said causation was not proven.¹¹

The fiscal 2024 NDAA added a requirement that the DoD give detailed reasons when denying claims. The DoD also raised the pain-and-suffering cap from $600,000 to $750,000 and said non-economic malpractice payouts will not be offset by VA compensation. A separate bill, the Healthcare Equality and Rights for our Heroes Act, was introduced in 2024 to allow service members to take denied malpractice claims to federal court, but as of the last available update it had not been considered by the House Judiciary Committee.¹⁰

How to Report Fraud, Waste, or Abuse

The Department of Defense Inspector General runs a hotline for reporting fraud, waste, abuse, mismanagement, and violations of law or regulation inside the DoD. It accepts reports from service members, DoD civilians, contractor employees, and the general public.¹²

You can submit a report:

Online through the DoD Hotline Webform.
By phone at 800-424-9098, toll-free, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern.
Anonymously, if you prefer.¹³

Complaints are reviewed by professional investigators and referred to the appropriate Inspector General, defense agency, or investigative body. The DoD OIG then reviews completed investigations to confirm they were independent and thorough. The hotline has processed over 375,000 complaints since its inception and reports more than $551.5 million saved or recovered.¹²

The DoD Hotline does not handle EEO discrimination complaints, employment grievances, military criminal proceedings, or emergencies. Those go to other channels.¹³

How to File a Whistleblower Reprisal Complaint

If you are a service member and you were punished for reporting wrongdoing, the Military Whistleblower Protection Act (10 U.S.C. § 1034) prohibits personnel actions taken in reprisal for a protected communication, such as a report to an Inspector General or a member of Congress.¹⁴

Key points of the process:

Filing window: Generally, reprisal complaints must be filed within one year of the date you become aware of the unfavorable personnel action.
Where: Online through the DoD OIG webform, or by mail.¹⁵
Evaluation: The Inspector General has 60 days for an initial review to decide whether a full investigation is warranted.
Investigation: Investigators must sit outside the chain of command of both the complainant and the subject. The standard of proof is preponderance of the evidence.
Corrective action: If reprisal is substantiated, the Secretary of the relevant military department must decide on corrective or disciplinary action within 30 days and notify the DoD OIG within 10 days of taking it.¹⁴

The Whistleblower Reprisal Investigations Directorate also runs an alternative dispute resolution program when both parties agree to pursue voluntary resolution instead of a formal investigation.¹⁶

How to Bring a USERRA Employment Claim

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act protects service members from employment discrimination based on military status and guarantees reemployment rights when they return from service.¹⁷ You have more than one route to pursue a claim:

VETS investigation. The Veterans’ Employment and Training Service at the Department of Labor investigates complaints and tries to resolve them informally. Filing with VETS is optional.
Attorney General referral. If VETS cannot resolve a complaint against a private or state or local government employer, you can request referral to the Attorney General, who may file a court action on your behalf.
Federal employees. You can file with the Office of Special Counsel or appeal directly to the Merit Systems Protection Board. There is no time limit for filing a USERRA appeal with the MSPB.¹⁸
Private lawsuit. You can skip VETS and the Attorney General and file suit on your own. USERRA has no statute of limitations, though defendants can raise the equitable defense of laches against very old claims.¹⁷

If a court finds the employer’s violation was willful, back pay or lost benefits can be doubled. Courts can also award attorney fees and litigation expenses to a winning plaintiff. You cannot be charged court fees to bring a USERRA suit.¹⁷

State employers can no longer use sovereign immunity to escape USERRA suits. In Torres v. Texas Department of Public Safety (2022), the Supreme Court ruled 5–4 that by ratifying the Constitution, states consented to the federal war powers that authorize private lawsuits enforcing veterans’ reemployment rights.¹⁹

How to Report an SCRA Violation

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act gives active-duty members, including Reserves and Guard on qualifying orders, financial protections such as a 6% interest rate cap on pre-service debts, foreclosure protection during active duty and for a year after, penalty-free termination of housing and auto leases on deployment or permanent change of station orders, and protection against default judgments entered without a judge first checking active-duty status.²⁰

To report a violation:

Submit a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau online or at (855) 411-2372.
Contact the Department of Justice’s Office of Civil Rights, which is the primary SCRA enforcer.
Consult a military legal assistance office on your installation.²⁰

The DOJ has obtained over $476 million in monetary relief for more than 121,000 service members since 2011. In 2022, the DOJ settled with two Virginia landlords who had obtained unlawful default judgments against military tenants by filing false military service affidavits, requiring $162,971 in restitution and a $62,029 civil penalty.²¹

Options for Military Sexual Assault Survivors

Lawsuits over military sexual assault have historically been blocked by Feres when the assault occurred incident to service, and service members are currently exempt from Title VII employment protections.³ The Ninth Circuit’s Spletstoser decision opened a limited path for assaults that occur on personal time, but it is binding only in that circuit.

Inside the military justice system, survivors have specific rights:

Choose restricted reporting, which allows medical treatment and support services without triggering a command investigation, or unrestricted reporting, which initiates an investigation.
Receive a Special Victims’ Counsel or Victims’ Legal Counsel at no cost.
State a preference for prosecution in civilian or military court.²²

The Survivors’ Bill of Rights Act of 2016 added free forensic medical examinations and required rape kits to be preserved for 20 years.²²

Joining Ongoing Military Lawsuits

Several large cases allow qualifying veterans, service members, or families to file claims or benefit from class relief.

Camp Lejeune Water Contamination

The Camp Lejeune Justice Act, enacted as part of the PACT Act in August 2022, lets individuals exposed to contaminated water at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune between 1953 and 1987 seek compensation.²³ The deadline for new administrative claims was August 10, 2024, so the window to file is closed.²⁴ Existing claimants may qualify for an Elective Option settlement of between $100,000 and $550,000 depending on illness. As of March 2026, the DOJ had approved 2,531 settlement offers totaling approximately $708 million. Litigation over causation standards, expert testimony, and benefit offsets continues in the Eastern District of North Carolina.²⁵

3M Combat Arms Earplug Settlement

The 3M Combat Arms earplug litigation produced a $6 billion settlement in August 2023, with over 99% of claimants opting in.²⁶ As of early 2026, more than $3.1 billion had been distributed, and all federal MDL cases had been dismissed. Deferred Payment Program awards are scheduled annually through 2029.²⁷ A global resolution for TRICARE liens set a flat $54 deduction per claimant.²⁸

PACT Act and Burn Pit Benefits

The PACT Act, signed August 10, 2022, added over 20 presumptive conditions tied to burn pit and toxic exposure, meaning veterans no longer need to prove service caused the condition to receive disability compensation. In its first year, the VA completed 458,659 PACT Act-related claims and paid out over $1.85 billion in benefits.²⁹ A March 2026 class action settlement in Smoke et al. v. Driscoll commits the Army to designate open-air burn pits in combat zones as “instrumentalities of war” for disability determinations and to review the records of veterans medically retired for PACT Act-related disabilities for tax-exempt medical retirement pay.³⁰

Combat-Related Special Compensation Back Pay

In Soto v. United States, decided unanimously on June 12, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that the six-year Barring Act limit does not apply to retroactive Combat-Related Special Compensation claims.³¹ The DoD issued interim guidance on August 20, 2025, telling the services to stop applying the six-year cap and to process retroactive payments. The Department of the Navy alone is reviewing over 15,000 claims to find members whose awards were reduced.³² A follow-on case, Ploe v. United States, challenges subsequent DoD guidance that NVLSP argues is too restrictive. A motion for class certification was filed on March 13, 2026, in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.³³

Air Force Pre-IDES Class Action

In Watts v. Meink, certified as a class action on January 16, 2026, in the Eastern District of Virginia, plaintiffs allege the Air Force used an unlawful “Pre-IDES” screening process to divert service members away from the Integrated Disability Evaluation System and strip them of its medical retirement protections. The certified class covers all Air Force members, reservists, and National Guard personnel who met IDES referral criteria but were diverted through Pre-IDES since July 1, 2019.³⁴

Other Active Class Actions

Nehmer v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs is an ongoing nationwide class action for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange that has secured over $7.2 billion in benefits under a 1991 consent decree requiring retroactive payments whenever the VA recognizes a new Agent Orange-associated disease.³⁵
Torres v. Del Toro required the Navy and Marine Corps to provide new medical retirement hearings to approximately 3,700 veterans affected by a 2016–2018 policy that kept Physical Evaluation Boards from considering all of a service member’s disabilities.³⁵
Brobst v. VHA, filed June 23, 2025, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims, challenges the Veterans Health Administration’s refusal to process reimbursement applications for emergency medical expenses under a 2023 VA regulation that allows reimbursement for expenses incurred as far back as 2010.³⁶

1
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2
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3
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17
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18
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20
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23
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30
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31
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32
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33
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34
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35
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36
NVLSP. NVLSP Files Class Action Challenging VHA’s Refusal to Decide Veterans’ Claims