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. Sunday, January 13, 2002 8:43 PM Comments on the Interum Rule of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 January 12, 2002 To: Mr. Kenneth Feinberg Re: Comments on the Interim Rule of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 Dear Mr. Feinberg, I am writing to ask for your help to correct the inequities contained in the Department of Justice's interim final rule for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. The pain my family has experienced in this tragedy is difficult to communicate. The loss of my husband is devastating. I would exchange all compensation to bring &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp back. The interim final rule increases the already intense pain to an even higher level. I ask you to help bring some fairness and balance to our lives. Please give me a reason to participate in the Fund. Please adjust the interim final rule to provide economic and noneconomic amounts at fair, balanced and acceptable levels. Please establish a fair appeal process. Please preserve worker's compensation payments for surviving victims. Finally, please include the specific calculation formulas, statistics and assumptions within the rule or the explanatory materials. The Interim Final Rule provides little incentive to participate in the Fund because it seriously understates our losses and undervalues the compensation for those losses. Consequently, the Interim Final Rule will defeat the intent of Public Law 107-42. When Congress passed the Air Transportation Safety And System Stabilization Act on September 22, 2001, it severely restricted our right to sue the airlines, which bear responsibility for our loved one's deaths because of lax security procedures. In exchange for denying Family Members this right, they provided the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001. The Fund is supposed to compensate the victims' families for the types of losses that would have been recoverable in a lawsuit. This includes economic losses, such as lost income, and non-economic losses. Non economic losses described in the law are very broad and inclusive. They are described as 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, hedonic damages, injury to reputation, and all other nonpecuniary losses of any kind or nature. The Interim Rule/Regulation also describes the intention of the law: "The Fund is designed to provide a no-fault alternative to tort litigation for individuals who were physically injured or killed as a result of the aircraft hijackings and crashes on September 11, 2001" {Interim Rule/Regulation, Summary Paragraph A.1.}. "The attached regulations have two objectives: (1) To provide fair, predictable and consistent compensation to the victims of September 11 and their families throughout the life of the program; and (2) to do so in an expedited, efficient manner without unnecessary bureaucracy and needless demands on the victims." {Interim Rule/Regulation, Supplementary Information.}. The Interim Final Rule issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) falls far short of these stated goals and does not comply with the statute passed by Congress.: a) Under the Interim Final Rule, my family would receive only one-tenth the amount of non-economic losses recovered in other air crash and terrorism cases, which commonly result in awards of between $2 million and $5 million. The Interim Final Rule understates economic losses in two ways: It caps the salaries of high-income victims and underestimates the lifetime earning potential of victims at all income levels. Noted economists at the National Association of Forensic Economists showed that the interim final rule uses outdated statistics and inappropriate methods to arrive at low estimates of our loved one's future earnings. An analysis done by one of these economists showed that the actual earnings growth for firefighters is 27% higher than the DOJ estimate, the actual earnings growth of all college educated workers is 30% higher than DOJ indicates, and actual earnings growth for financial professionals is more than 100% higher than the DOJ estimate. Because the initial award amounts are so low, many families will receive little compensation from the Fund after the collateral payment deductions have been subtracted. There will be little reason to participate. To compound the unfairness, my family would have little real opportunity to appeal the determination of the Fund Master. A family's award may be increased above the "presumptive" award only by showing "extraordinary circumstances" beyond those suffered by other victims or victims' families. This makes the hearing or appeal to the Special Master extremely arbitrary, unclear and unfair. In addition the proposed compensation to the spouses, children and other innocent victims of the attacks is out of balance when compared to the generous compensation to the airlines. Not only did the law cap the airlines' liability at the limits of their insurance (which saves the airlines billions of dollars), but it also provides for direct cash payments and loan guarantees to the airlines totaling $15 billion. The underpayments to the spouses, children and other loved ones suffering from this attack will shift the cost of these airline subsidies and liability limits to the innocent victims of the attacks. Please correct the inequity. Please give me a reason to participate in the Fund. Please adjust the interim final rule to provide economic and noneconomic amounts at fair, balanced and acceptable levels. Please establish a fair appeal process. Please preserve worker's compensation payments for surviving victims. Finally, please include the specific calculation formulas, statistics and assumptions within the rule or the explanatory materials. Sincerely, Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2002-01-13 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 dojN001533.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. 2002-01-13