FLINT, MI – A new class-action lawsuit filed Monday, March 7 over the city’s water crisis is seeking damages for those injured from exposure to the introduction of lead and other substances.

The lawsuit on behalf of seven families states children and adults have been exposed to “damaging levels” of lead and seeks relief for physical and psychological injuries, learning and other permanent disabilities, weight loss, stunted growth, as well as emotional distress and loss of income.

Ari Adler, spokesman for Gov. Snyder, said the office does not comment on pending litigation. The state is named in the lawsuit, along with former emergency managers and former City of Flint and state employees.

The lawsuit claims in part violations of the Safe Drinking Water Act and the federal Lead and Copper Rule and traces the history of the water woes in the city. The water supply was switched to the Flint River in April 2014. Residents began to complain of smelly, discolored water.

Test results later revealed elevated lead levels in the water and in adults and children living in the city, and the water source was eventually switched back to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department in October 2015.

Several lawsuits have been filed over the water crisis, but the legal challenges may have uphill battles in the courtroom.

Christopher Hastings, a professor at Western Michigan University’s Cooley Law School, has said lawyers representing the city’s residents may have to duke it out among themselves before they ever get a chance to take on the local and state agencies they accuse in their lawsuits.

“The courts have to figure out a way to get all these classes together in the same place,” said Hastings in a Feb. 22 Flint Journal article.

If multiple class-action cases are filed over largely the same accusations, Hastings said it could ultimately fall onto the courts to decide which lawyers would represent the class moving forward.