Lawyers for disabled RCMP, military vets to present settlements on clawbacks

HALIFAX—Two class-action cases involving disabled RCMP and military veterans will be in Federal Court today in Halifax.

Lawyers will seek to have settlements on disability clawbacks and cost of living provisions approved.

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.