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, November 26, 2001 2:30 PM Public Comment Sept 11th Victim compensation Fund Kenneth L. Zwick, Director Office of Management Programs U.S. Department of Justice Civil Division Main Building, Room 3140 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20530 Dear Sir: I am the father of one of the decedents of the 9/11 WTC tragedy and as such would prefer to remain anonymous, at the direction of Sen. Jon Corzines' office, for security reasons. In general, it's my belief that the process be simplified, secure and fair, with a painstaking effort to drastically reduce any additional suffering on the part of effected families and or next of kin. Topic 231 & 232 1. I will only deal with documentation surrounding physical death as that's what effects me and my family. Documentation here I believe should be fairly simple in the form of a death certificate and certification of estate representative as granted in probate [ if possible]. 2. economic loss should be a simple formula that takes into account the decedents past 12 month earnings and a escalating multiple of those earning going forward to age 65. Keeping in mind the age of death and the earnings norm for that particular position, within the peer group, of that particular industry. In other words earnings capacity should be a formula component along with the lost income component. This is a straight forward calculation. Concerning the noneconomic component, to attempt to put a Special Master in the role of Salomon and fairly rule on the noneconomic variances in so many cases, without establishing a minimum/maximum noneconomic component dollar range up front is ludicrous. Those dollar amounts should be established from available statistical information on awards granted from previous case settlements involving wrongful death already on the books. Considering the available time, urgency of the matter and need for fairness. To place any individual in the role of trying to decide the noneconomic value of a loved one based upon varying presentation skill levels of advocates is at best going to generate volumes of public outrage. The dollar amount of this component should be generous but narrow. For example: 40-45 million dollars [ statistical precedent should be used from existing wrongful death awards] 3. Any relief received from charitable sources should not be considered collateral sources. All compensation received in this matter regardless of source, i.e. insurance, charity, victim compensation fund should have no taxable component. topic 233 Concerning procedures for hearings and presentations: If the calculation of the economic factor is defined and the generous but limited range of noneconomic recovery is stated up front as outlined in my response to topic 232 the need for hearings, witnesses, presentations, documentation, delays, postponements and other time consuming reviews are drastically minimized. The claimant knowing within a narrow margin up front what their proposed settlement will be. Would provide them with the necessary information to decide whether or not to pursue tort action or accept the Special Masters ruling. This would largely illuminate the time consuming argumentative back and forth and prevent any additional unnecessary public and private suffering surrounding this horror. Topic 234: The Special Master should not limit fees charged in connection with assisting claimants in their filings. For the simple reason that in order to receive professional focus in the private realm. Adequate compensation usually has a direct correlation to quality of services received. However a fee range should be established for services rendered to prevent overcharging. These fees should be paid directly from the Compensation Fund only after an itemized bill is submitted by the professional directly to the Fund and verified by the claimant. Topic 235 The Personal Representative as established in probate should be the appropriate person to file the claim. topic 236 Nature and amount of compensation is discussed in topic 231 & 232 above Respectfully, Grieving Father individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-26 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 dojW000597.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. 2001-11-26