N000832
Sunday, December 23, 2001 5:51 PM
Compensation Fund
My son was a victim of the attacks. He was 30 and single. He worked for
.
The assumptions in the table for his lifetime income are way to low. For
some of the other class of victims, you may be forcing them to make a poor
financial decision because they need the money immediately to survive. It
seems that you have set the matrix low on purpose in an effort to save the
American taxpayers money. Judging by the amount of money the American people
donated to relief agencies, you have made a gross error on their desires.
This was not the tone of the bill that Congress passed.
The non-economic awards of $250,000 are pitiful. The emergency workers have
already gotten $250,000 from the Department of Justice, so they get to
double dip, so to speak. Remember, the emergency workers know their risk
when they pursue their careers in public service. The civilians just went to
work on September 11th to support their families. They were also taxpayers
supporting the emergiency workers. The civilians, under normal
circumstances, would all file wrongful death suits and the amounts awarded
would be far greater. Think if there were only 300 victims instead of 3000.
You would have to agree that the amount set is way to low.
I realize we can all request hearings. You have set the plan up to encourage
hearings and that will result in 3000 hearings over a two year period. That
is 6 hearings a day, at 2 hours a hearing, 12 hours of hearings a day for 2
years. That is clearly not the intention of the act.
I would hope, over the next several weeks, you would reconsider your matrix
and your non-economic awards. Once figures have been set to paper, there
will be a reluctance by judges to deviate from those numbers. It is like a
departmental budget awarding 5% raises to everyone. Everyone may not deserve
a raise and some people may deserve more. Those that do not deserve a raise
will not get it, but those that deserve more will not be given an additional
share so the departmental budget will come in under projections. Again, not
the intention if the Act.
Individual Comment
West Caldwell, NJ