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 21, 2002 VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS Mr. Kenneth L. Zwick Director, Office of Management Programs Civil Division United States Department of Justice Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530-0001 Re: Victim's Compensation Fund Dear Mr. Zwick: Below please find our comments to the proposed interim rules. Non Economic Loss: The statute provides for non-economic loss. This includes losses for physical and emotional pain, suffering, inconvenience, physical impairment, mental anguish, disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life, loss of society and companionship, loss of consortium (other than loss of domestic service,) hedonic damages, injury to reputation, and all other nonpecuniary losses of any kind or nature. Each family is entitled to full and fair compensation for each element per the enacted statute. The statute does not limit or cap the recovery of non-economic losses to a pre- determined amount. Nothing in the statute allows the special master to make a pre-determined amount of any of these damages. Additionally, the sum of $50,000 that he has determined is the amount to be awarded, regardless of the circumstances is arbitrary, capricious, unfair and unjust. The statute provides for hedonic damages, and for compensation for the pain and suffering of the decedent. It is not a matter of discretion. The pain and suffering of the victims of 9/11 is unspeakable. Many of these people had to make the choice of dying in the flames or jumping to their doom. The North tower took fifty-three minutes to collapse and the South tower took one hour and forty minutes to collapse. Courts have awarded and sustained over one million dollars for the pain and suffering of a decedent in an airline crash in a case where it was estimated that the suffering lasted only 12 minutes. Here, the awards should be multiples of that, not a flat amount of $250,000.00, which is then subject to collateral offsets. Economic Loss: The proposed awards for economic damages are grossly inadequate. Contrary to the Special Master's language, the statute does not make economic loss a needs based loss. Rather, the statute simply states that economic loss is defined as: any pecuniary loss resulting from the harm, including loss or earnings or other benefits relating to employment, medical expenses, loss due to death, burial costs and loss of business or employment opportunities. The statute does not give the Special Master the power to determine how much money a family "needs", it only allows him to calculate the actual loss sustained. There is nothing in the statute that allows the economic loss to be limited to a pre-determined or presumptive amount. Nor does the statute have a "cap" on earnings. The Special Master's arbitrary top amount of $231,000.00 is discriminatory to those who have earned, through hard work, more than that amount. The presumptive awards stated in the interim regulation for economic loss fail to set forth the manner in which they were calculated. The economic calculations are supposedly based on a variety of economic data, including, gross earnings, retirement age, tax rate, reduction of the award to present value (using an unknown discount rate),as well as a reduction for personal consumption (however, the regulations do not state what that consumption rate is.) The determination of economic loss should be based on the actual earnings, as well as the earning potential of each decedent. The Department of Justice relied on outdated work-life and life-cycle data, and fails to address promotions and other increases in earnings for victims. Each person's economic loss needs to be determined individually and not in mass. Additionally, services to loved ones should be addressed, and other elements of employee compensation, such as stock options must be recognized. Burden of Proof The burden of proof must be changed. The requirement that families must prove "extraordinary circumstances" in order to receive more that the presumptive award is an impossible standard to meet, and it is contrary to the statute. Again, this burden is discriminatory to those individuals who had been financially successful. The fund was designed to replace the tort system. The Special Master should look to the law to guide him in determining a reasonable method of implementing the congressional intent for fair and reasonable compensation. We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you in person with regard to our submission. Very truly yours, Individual Comment New York, NY 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 dojN002433.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