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. Monday, January 21, 2002 8:51 AM Comment Re: Interim Final Rules, September 11 Victim Compensation Fund Mr. Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs, Civil Division U.S. Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue Washington, DC 20530 Dear Mr. Zwick: My firm is currently representing the interests of several families who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center on September 11, and in that capacity I am writing to comment on the Interim Final Rules. In each case the person who was killed was the family's primary wage earner. In each case there are young children who have been deprived of a father, and wives who have lost their husbands. These families have suffered emotional devastation, and each of them now faces an uncertain financial future. The legislation which gave rise to the Compensation Fund, simultaneously eliminated the prospect of victims receiving adequate compensation through private litigation by limiting liability to the amount of the insurance coverage maintained by the air carriers. It is therefore essential that the fund be administrated in such a fashion as to guarantee that claimants will receive adequate compensation, since no reasonable alternative to the fund now exists. Unfortunately, the fund fails miserably in this regard. In formulating the compensation rates available under the fund, there has apparently been little consideration given to the economic realities faced by many of the families who were impacted by the September 11 tragedy. Many of those who worked in the WTC, especially those in the offices on the upper floors, were the top people at some of the most successful financial enterprises in the world. Their talent, ambition and hard work provided them with levels of compensation far beyond the upper limits recognized by the Compensation Fund. They had lifestyles and obligations commensurate with their extraordinary salaries. Their survivors have now been deprived of those salaries, but the obligations remain. Under the formulas provided by the Interim Final Rules the ultimate compensation available to surviving families can amount to a small percentage of the victim's annual salary. The September 11 widows will be forced to meet the needs of their families through a system which refuses to recognize the true value of their loss. The alternative: face the daunting prospects of a civil law suit the outcome of which has been pre-ordained by Congress to be meager, even if all burdens of proof have been satisfied. In Connecticut the measure of civil damages is "fair, just and reasonable." For many of the survivors of September 11 the system which has been established to provide them with compensation makes this fundamental concept an impossibility. Individual Comment Stamford, CT September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-21 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 dojN002159.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. 2002-01-21