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. January 18,2002 Kenneth L. Zwick Re: Comments on the Interim Rules September 11 Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 Dear Mr. Zwick: I am writing on behalf of four families who were killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001, to comment on the Interim Rule. We object to the presumed award and their manner of calculation. I recognize the awards are not intended as full tort compensation, and that there is a "trade off" element involved attempting certainly and finality in exchange for the uncertainty of litigation. However, the "trade off" goes too far. The victims are asked to forego all tort claims in exchange for the presumed award. Waiver of civil litigations extends not only to the airlines, airports and World Trade Center operations, but also to the United States and in particular the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It is arguably applicable to actions against individual terrorists and the states that sponsor them. The emergency legislation enacted in the wake of the attacks provides relief and protection to the airlines. The Federal Torts Claims Act (FTCA) imposes significant hurdles of its own for claims against the United States. Yet, it is the malfeasance of the United States and the airline industry that set the stage. The presumed award suffers from the following defects: 1.) The pain and suffering component is below what a jury would reasonably be expected to award or an insurance carrier offer in settlement; January 18, 2002 page 2 2.) The economic loss component unfairly penalizes successful, responsible families due to the collateral source reductions; 3.) The Interim Rule provides no guide as to what is intended by "extraordinary individual circumstances" nor how they will impact on the award and what proofs will be required to support a finding of extraordinary individual circumstances; 4.) Economic loss calculations are skewed downward by use of national averages, ignoring the reality of the loss of talented adults employed in New York City. The fixing of the presumed award at a lower than reasonable level coupled with the drastic effect collateral source reductions will have together withe transfer of tax dollars to culpable airline industry actors is inequitable. It is a lowest common denominator approach to unique circumstances. In short, the survivors end up paying for the protection of the airlines. Claims should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis and awards entered without regard to the presumed award calculations in the absence of a definition of extraordinary individual circumstances. The entire structure of the legislation pressures almost all claimants to enter the program, without consent. The normal rules have been disturbed to the benefit of the airlines and the government. There should be consideration given to the survivors for that, over and above the presumed award. Very truly yours, Individual Comment Freehold, New Jersey VPM/cf September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-18 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 dojN002526.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. 2002-01-18