ADVOCATES FOR BACK PAY FOR
FORMER SERVICE MEMBERS

There are currently three class action cases that have been filed in the Federal Court of Claims seeking backpay for service members who refused to take a COVID-19 vaccine under the Department of Defense’s (“DoD”) COVID-19 vaccine mandate and were discharged, kicked off active-duty, forced into early retirement, involuntarily transferred to the inactive ready reserve, or were denied pay or retirement benefits, for their refusal to do so.

Bassen v. United States (Active-Duty). Bassen is a class action filed on behalf of the approximately 8,500 active-duty service members who were involuntarily discharged due to their unvaccinated status, as well as any other active-duty service members who were forced into early retirement or were constructively discharged due to their vaccination status.

Botello v. United States (National Guard/Reserves). Botello is a class-action seeking backpay and other remedies for 70,000-100,000 members of the Air and Army National Guard, and for reserve members of all services, who were dropped from active-duty orders or active status, denied pay or benefits, or prohibited from participating in drills, training, other duties due to their vaccinated status.

Harkins v. United States (Active-Duty and Reserve). Harkins is a class action filed on behalf of the active-duty and reserve Coast Guard members who were involuntarily discharged due to their unvaccinated status, as well as any other Coast Guard members who were forced into early retirement or were constructively discharged due to their vaccination status.

If you fall into any of the above categories, you may have a claim for backpay, financial compensation or other remedies such as reinstatement or correction of military records.

The first step is to provide the contact information and answer the questions at the link on this site to allow us to preliminarily determine whether you have a claim for backpay.

After that, the Military Backpay team will follow up with you to discuss your case and collect additional information.

Signing a representation agreement with Military Backpay attorneys does not obligate you to pursue a case, nor does it obligate the Military Backpay attorneys to represent you or file a case. Either party may terminate at any time. The purpose of the questionnaire and agreement is, among other things, to assist in gathering relevant information and to evaluate whether you have a claim for military backpay.

We cannot provide any estimates of the potential value of your claim or what you may be awarded in a settlement or a judgment. We will first have to closely review the facts of your individual case to determine if you have a claim for military backpay, retirement or financial compensation.

But we can provide some guidance for you to estimate the potential amount of your claim.

If you were involuntarily and wrongfully discharged from active duty, then your entitlement to backpay would be the amount of your annual compensation (salary, benefits, BAH, etc.) for the number of years remaining your contract after the discharge date. There are several online calculators that would allow you to estimate the loss or reduction of retirement benefits due to the unlawful discharged and lost years of service.

The Court of Federal Claims will not, however, award damages for emotional distress, pain, and suffering or consequential losses (e.g., if you could not pay your mortgage due to the discharged and consequently lost your house).

Depending on your circumstances, it may be possible to seek reinstatement, correction of military records, and/or a special selection board if the court finds that you were wrongfully denied promotion.

Yes. While the Court of Federal Claims is primarily concerned with contractual disputes and claims for monetary damages like backpay, it may address violations of other statutes to the extent necessary to resolve the underlying contractual dispute. In this case, the question is whether the military’s discharge or denial of pay or benefits was wrongful because in doing so it violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, informed consent rights, or other federal laws.

We expect these cases could take several years to fully resolve. Having said that, the Federal Court of Claims is a specialized court with nearly exclusive jurisdiction over military backpay claims, as well as other specialized areas like vaccine injuries, government contract disputes, and patent and trademark claims. Because the Court is so specialized, it often can resolve cases more quickly than would be typical for federal court. Still, class action cases are complex and there are many people with potential claims. So, currently, we do not believe these cases are likely to resolve in anything less than one year, at a minimum, and more likely not for two or even three years.

It costs you nothing to hire us as your attorneys unless and until you receive backpay or other compensation. Instead, if you retain us, we will represent you under a contingency fee arrangement where you pay no attorney’s fees unless you recover money. If your claim is unsuccessful, you will not owe us anything.
If your claim is successful, we will be paid as detailed in a representation and contingent fee agreement we will ask you to sign. This agreement sets forth different ways we will be paid. Depending upon how your claim is resolved, we may be paid pursuant to a settlement with the Government, by an order of the Court, or as a percentage of your recovery. The contingency fee agreement contains the details.

The Military Backpay team is led by four attorneys each with 20-40+ years of experience.

Dale Saran: Mr. Saran is the lead attorney. He has over 20 years of experience as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps, including as an instructor at the Naval Justice School. Mr. Saran has over 20 years of experience litigating military backpay claims before the Court of Federal Claims.

Mr. Saran has been leading the fight against illegal military vaccine mandates for nearly 20 years, starting with his successful challenges to the DOD’s mandate of an experimental vaccine anthrax in 2003 in Doe v. Rumsfeld cases that resulted in permanent, nation-wide injunction banning the practice. In 2020, Mr. Saran published “United States v. Members of the Armed Forces”, a book describing his experiences challenging the anthrax vaccine mandate and providing an historic overview of the DoD’s nearly century-long abuses of service members to test experimental drugs and treatments and the evolving policies and laws governing informed consent.

Brandon Johnson: Mr. Johnson has over 20 years of experience litigating for and against the U.S. government in Washington, D.C., for leading firms like Kirkland & Ellis, Gibson Dunn, King & Spalding and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Mr. Johnson is lead counsel or co-counsel with the other Military Backpay attorneys in a number of other challenges to the military mandates around the country, including class actions in Texas and Virginia and a number of individual cases in Florida and Texas.

J. Andrew Meyer: Mr. Meyer is a highly experience trial lawyer and the class action expert on the team with decades of experience in class actions and representing plaintiffs in employment, civil rights, consumer protection, fraud/deceptive trade practices, mass torts and similar claims, some of which resulted in judgments or settlements of hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. Mr. Meyer is co-counsel with the other Military Backpay attorneys in a number of other challenges to the military mandates around the country, including class actions in Texas and Virginia.

Barry P. Steinberg: Since retirement from active duty, Colonel Steinberg has continued to provide legal advice and representation to federal, state and local governmental authorities as well as private sector entities and individuals on the full spectrum of legal requirements and policy issues including BCMR cases.

Rachel Saran: Ms. Saran 

Nick Kupper: Mr. Kupper recently retired from the Air Force after battling the DoD’s illegal mandate for the past two years. He was one of the first service members to sue the DoD over the mandate as a named plaintiff in Coker v. Austin and took the fight to the media and congress. He has appeared on Breitbart, Tucker Carlson Tonight and Congressman Matt Gaetz’ podcast to highlight the service member’s plight and bring an end to the mandate. He has worked closely with Mr. Saran and Mr. Johnson over the past two years and is a welcome addition to our team.