If you or your child was seriously injured by a vaccine, the claim usually goes to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), a federal no-fault program. You file a petition in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, you do not have to prove anyone was careless, and the program pays reasonable attorney fees and costs separately from any compensation it awards.
The filing limits are short and they run from the first symptom, not from a diagnosis. COVID-19 vaccines have been handled by a different program with a one-year limit. Knowing which program applies, and when its clock started, is the first thing to settle.
What the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is
Congress created the VICP in the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. Claims are decided in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, usually by a special master. The Department of Health and Human Services is the respondent, represented by the Department of Justice.
It is no-fault. You do not have to prove the manufacturer made a bad product or that the nurse did something wrong. The question is whether the vaccine caused the injury.
It is also the required first step. Federal law does not allow a civil lawsuit for more than $1,000 against a vaccine manufacturer or the person who gave the vaccine until a VICP petition has been filed. That applies even where the claim is that the shot was given badly. Lawsuits after the program are possible in limited circumstances, and federal law sharply restricts them.
Who can file, and for which vaccines
The program covers vaccines that the CDC recommends for routine use in children or pregnant women and that are subject to a federal excise tax. Adults are covered too when they receive one of those vaccines, which is why a seasonal flu shot given to an adult at a pharmacy can be part of it.
A petition can be filed by the injured person, by a parent or legal representative on behalf of a child, or by the legal representative of someone who died. The injury has to be serious enough to meet one of these tests:
- The effects lasted more than six months after the vaccine was given
- The injury led to inpatient hospitalization and surgery
- The injury caused death
The Vaccine Injury Table, and claims that are not on it
The Vaccine Injury Table is a federal regulation that lists vaccines, specific injuries, and the time window after vaccination in which each injury has to appear. If your injury is on the Table and started within its window, causation is presumed. The government can still try to show another cause, but the burden shifts.
The Table has included, among others, severe allergic reaction (anaphylaxis), shoulder injury related to vaccine administration (often called SIRVA), and Guillain-Barré syndrome after the seasonal flu vaccine. The Table is changed by regulation from time to time, so we check the version that applies to the date of your vaccine.
An injury that is not on the Table, or that started outside the window, can still be compensated. You then have to prove the vaccine caused it, which usually means medical records and an expert opinion. These "off-Table" claims are harder and take longer, but they are a normal part of the program.
The filing limits, and why they catch people
- Injury: a petition must be filed within 36 months after the first symptom or manifestation of the injury.
- Death: a petition must be filed within 24 months of the death, and no more than 48 months after the first symptom of the injury that led to it.
The clock runs from the first symptom, which is often earlier than the diagnosis. A shoulder that hurt the week after a flu shot, or numbness that was dismissed at first, can be the date that counts. Maryland's three-year lawsuit rule does not apply to these claims, and neither do the rules that pause the clock for children.
COVID-19 vaccines go through a different program
COVID-19 vaccines have not been part of the VICP. Injuries from them have been handled by the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), which runs under a separate federal law, the PREP Act. Coverage can change if Congress or federal health officials change it, so ask us which program applies to your date of vaccination.
The CICP is much narrower than the VICP:
- A one-year limit. A request for benefits generally has to be filed within one year of the date the vaccine was given.
- No court. Claims are decided by HHS staff through an administrative process, and those decisions are not open to review by a judge.
- No pain and suffering. Benefits are limited to unreimbursed medical expenses, lost employment income and a set death benefit.
- No attorney fees. Unlike the VICP, the CICP does not pay attorney fees.
The one-year limit is the one that ends most COVID-19 claims. If your vaccine was given close to a year ago, do not wait.
What the VICP can pay
- Past and future medical and care costs that insurance has not paid
- Lost earnings, past and future
- Pain and suffering, capped by statute at $250,000
- A death benefit of $250,000 to the estate where the vaccine caused a death
We do not put a value on claims on a website, and past results do not predict any outcome.
How attorney fees work in a VICP claim
As with every case we take, you pay no fee unless we recover money for you. What differs in a VICP claim is who pays us. The program itself pays reasonable attorney fees and costs, separately from the compensation it awards you, and it can pay them even when a petition is not successful, as long as it was brought in good faith and on a reasonable basis. Federal law does not allow a lawyer to charge a fee for a VICP petition beyond what the court awards.
COVID-19 claims under the CICP are different, because that program pays no attorney fees. We explain any fee arrangement in writing before you sign anything.
What to gather now
- The vaccination record: the vaccine, the date, the lot number if you have it, and where it was given.
- The date of the first symptom, written down now while you remember it, with anything that fixes the date, such as a message you sent or a doctor's appointment.
- Every medical record since, including urgent care, physical therapy and specialists.
- A report to VAERS, the federal adverse event reporting system, if one was made. A report is useful but it is not a claim, and it does not stop any deadline.
