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1 1 (May 4, 2026)

handle is hein.crs/goveuiv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: The Adjudication of Petitions and the 240-Day Deadline May 4, 2026 The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) was created by Congress via the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986. The VICP is a no-fault compensation program made up of two essential components. First, it allows individuals who suffer vaccine-related injuries or deaths to receive compensation by filing a petition for compensation with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims (Court of Federal Claims) and serving the petition on the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Second, the statute provides a liability shield for vaccine manufacturers and administrators (i.e., individuals who administer vaccines), which generally prevents injured individuals from bringing lawsuits until the VICP process is exhausted. Congress directed the Office of Special Masters (OSM), which adjudicates petitions for compensation, to determine entitlement within 240 days of the filing of the petition. If a petition has not been adjudicated within that time frame, a petitioner may voluntarily dismiss it; this provision is known as the 240-day deadline. Thus, a petitioner may exhaust the VICP remedy either by fully adjudicating a VICP petition, or by withdrawing the petition after the 240-day deadline. Historically, some individuals who were not entitled to VICP compensation have subsequently sued vaccine manufacturers. In recent years, there has been concern that more petitioners will use the 240-day deadline to exit the program and instead pursue litigation against manufacturers, potentially circumventing the general purpose of the VICP statute. For example, in 2022, hundreds of petitioners filed complaints in federal court that were consolidated into a multidistrict litigation against Merck, the maker of the Gardasil vaccine (In re GardasilProducts Liability Litigation). Most, but not all, of those litigants first exhausted their VICP remedy. For the claimants who did not exhaust their VICP remedy, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (Fourth Circuit) ruled in 2025 that timely participation in the VICP was necessary before a petitioner could join the multidistrict litigation. In recent years, a growing number of petitions have been dismissed by petitioners after the 240-day deadline, with at least one petitioner claiming that her attorney encouraged her to file a VICP petition only to then use the 240-day deadline to exit the program, even when she wanted to pursue compensation through VICP. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11428 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress