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. The City of New York Law Department New York, NY January 22, 2002 via e-mail: victimcomp.comments@usdoj.gov Kenneth Feinberg, Esq. Kenneth L. Zwick, Esq. Special Master Director, Office of Management September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Civil Division, U.S. Dept. of Justice 780 Third Avenue, 22nd Floor Main Building, Room 3140 New York, New York 10017 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 Dear Special Master Feinberg and Mr. Zwick: I write on behalf of the City of New York to comment upon the Interim Final Rule ("the Rule") promulgated on December 21, 2001 to carry out the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act ("Act"). The City respectfully submits that the Interim Rule should be modified in a number of respects so that the regulatory scheme conforms more fully with the purposes and language of the legislation and to ensure that the victims of the September 11th attacks are fairly and adequately compensated. The City concurs in large part with the comments about the Rule made by New York Governor Pataki and New York State Attorney General Spitzer in their joint submission. Specifically, and without repeating their contentions at length, we fully agree that: - The Rule's treatment of economic and noneconomic losses is both unfair and inconsistent with the Act. There is no basis in the Act for limiting recovery of lost earnings. The Act requires that economic damages authorized by state law be awarded to a victim; New York law, which is applicable to most claims, provides for full recovery of economic loss, including lost earnings. Any effort to limit the recovery to something less than that amount simply finds no support in the Act or concepts of fundamental fairness. Similarly, while presumptive noneconomic awards will help ensure uniformity in the administration of claims, under the Act claimants who submit evidence of their actual damages should not have to demonstrate extraordinary circumstances in order to obtain a recovery in excess of the presumptive award. - The eligibility provisions of the Rule are also more restrictive than those set forth in the Act. Individuals who suffered physical harm as a result of the crashes should not be made ineligible simply because they did not seek medical attention within 24 hours of the attack or their rescue, or were not hospitalized or rendered disabled. Nor, if they were in fact physically harmed because of the crashes or ensuing collapse, should they be denied a recovery because they are unable to verify their injuries with contemporaneous medical records. These additional requirements in the Rule engraft conditions to recovery that are not found in the Act. The Rule should be modified so that, consistent with the Act, any persons who can show that they suffered physical harm because of the attacks are eligible for an award. - Upon sufficient proof of a relationship of economic dependence or interdependence, domestic partners and other family members lacking formal legal recognition should be considered eligible for an award. - The rule should prohibit disclosure of information or documents about an undocumented alien's immigration status to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. - Only those collateral sources provided as a matter of contractual or statutory right should be offset against an award, and, as under New York law, collateral sources should be offset against an award only to the extent that they correspond to the particular kind of loss that provides the basis for recovery. See Oden v. Chemung County Indus. Dev. Agency, 87 N.Y.2d 81 (1995). Finally, because the Act clearly provides that upon submission of a claim, the claimant waives the right to bring a lawsuit to recover damages resulting from the crashes (and because submission of a claim may jeopardize a claimant's eligibility for worker's compensation benefits of have other legal consequences), it is critical that the claim form devised by the Special Master clearly state the legal consequences, or possible legal consequences, of submitting a claim. The form should also strongly recommend that an individual seek legal advice before submitting a claim. Thank you very much for your consideration of these comments. Very truly yours, Comment By The City of New York September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-22 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 dojN002434.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. 2002-01-22