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. Tuesday, November 20, 2001 3:23 PM Comment on Victim Compensation Program I am writing to comment on the Victim Compensation Program. I am a visiting professor at NYU and Connell Professor at UCLA Law School; I have taught torts for 32 years. 1. I believe the term "physically injured" should include the emotional distress of those evacuated from the damaged buildings, whether or not they suffered direct physical impact. As you know, the latter requirement has been eliminated by virtually every American jurisdiction. Nor do I think there should be a requirement of physical consequences (sleep loss, changes in diet); we know that emotional distress has physical components. 2. I believe that collateral sources should be disregarded. I gather the DOJ is already inclined to disregard charitable donations. The only other significant collateral sources are those for which the victim already has given value--premiums for insurance, labor for employment benefits (including insurance). 3. I do NOT believe survivors should be compensated for the pain and suffering of decedents. The only justification for such payments after death is deterrence, which has no relevance to the federal compensation fund. 4. Obviously statistical methods will be necessary to extrapolate forward the income streams of those killed or injured and the portions that would be devoted to the benefit of dependents. 5. State law varies greatly about whether family members can recover for damage to the relationship with a victim who is killed (wrongful death) or injured (loss of consortium). No state offers a principled basis for drawing the lines it does. I believe the DOJ is free to draw its own lines; I would urge it to do so broadly to include spouses, parents, and children (including step-relationships). At the same time, I do not believe there should be individualized valuations of these relationships; the purpose is to acknowledge the loss, not to compensate it, since there can be no meaningful compensation. I would be glad to expand on or explain any of these ideas. Individual Comment September 11 Email: Date The local time and date when the message was written. 2001-11-20 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 dojW000441.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. 2001-11-20