Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Department of Justice Emails Description An account of the resource The Department of Justice received more than 11,000 e-mails in response to the agency's public solicitation for comments upon its plans to distribute the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 established by Congress to benefit the victims of September 11 and their families. These e-mails have been organized here by date. September 11 Email September 11 Email: Body The basic content, as unstructured text; sometimes containing a signature block at the end. Tuesday, January 15, 2002 9:29 PM to the Special Master Dear Mr. Feinberg: I lost my beloved husband when he was murdered at the World Trade Center on September 11th. I am writing to express serious concerns re the Department of Justice's (DOJ) "Interim Final Regulations Governing Payments Under the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund." The "airline bailout" act gave the airlines $15 billion in cash and loan guarantees and capped the airlines' liability for the September 11 crashes at the limits of their insurance coverage. Because of this cap, the damage caused by the crashes greatly exceeds the private Fund available to compensate victims and their families. Thus, for the vast majority of victims and families, the cap has the effect of eliminating the right that they would otherwise have to sue the airlines. Congress set up the Fund to ensure that the airline bailout would not come at the expense of the victims' families. The act mandates full and fair compensation to victims and their families for their actual economic and non-economic damages. DOJ has apparently discarded this mandate, instead creating regulations that will result in compensation levels far below the losses actual suffered by the victims and their families. In fact, many families' total compensation from the Fund COMBINED with all collateral sources combined will not fully replace lost income as the Fund regulations now stand. In effect, these families will not receive ANY of the non-economic compensation required by the statute. After collateral sources are deducted, as required by the statute, some families would receive NOTHING from the Fund under the interim final regulations, despite news reports that would have the public believe otherwise. DOJ's formula for non-economic damages of $250,000 for the person killed and $50,000 for the spouse and each dependent is about 1/10 of the minimum awarded in a variety of air crash and terrorism cases. Further, independent economists have found serious flaws in DOJ's method of calculating economic damages, including use of outdated and inapplicable worklife and lifecycle earnings data. Under DOJ's rules, a family's award may be increased above the "presumptive" award only by a showing of "extraordinary circumstances" -- beyond those suffered by other victims or victims' families. This high burden of proof puts the onus on the grieving families and creates, intentionally or not, an adversarial situation with families "competing" for monies. DOJ should fulfill the act's intent by revising the rules to compensate victims and their families for the types of damages specified by Congress, at levels comparable to those provided in the tort system the Fund was designed to replace. DOJ continues to resist the victims' and families' requests for significant changes. If the proposed regulations are not changed meaningfully, many families, anticipating little relief from the Fund, will be forced into the legal system, suing despite the handicap of the liability limits. I cannot believe this is the outcome Congress intended. Sincerely, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-15 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource dojN001690.xml 911DA Item Elements describing a September 11 Digital Archive item. Status The process status of this item. approved Consent Whether September 11 Digital Archive has permission to possess this item. full Posting Whether the contributor gave permission to post this item. yes Copyright Whether the contributor holds copyright to this item. yes Source The source of this item. born-digital Media Type The media type of this item. email Created by Author Whether the author created this item. yes Described by Author Whether the description of this item was submitted by the author. no Date Entered The date this item was entered into the archive. 2002-01-15