N001903
Wednesday, January 16, 2002 4:23 PM
Victims Compensation Fund, Att: Mr Zwick
Dear Mr. Zwick:
On September 11th. my husband, woke up at 5:00 AM as
he did every morning. He said his prayers, went out for his run then
proceeded to drive to work. I am proud to say he was a successful man in
his own right. At 41 years old and he was
at in One World Trade Center. He did not return home to his family that evening and never had a chance to get a call out.
He leaves behind a wife of 18 years, three children, parents,
brothers, sisters, in-laws, friends...the ripple effect goes on.
The pain we now must live with is indescribable.
I am writing you today Sir simple to ask you not to forget these men
and their families.
As you know, in the immediate aftermath of this tragic attack, our
Congress enacted unprecedented legislation to bail out the airlines by
imposing a caps on their liability thus restricting, (and for all intense
purposes eliminating), victim's constitutional right to pursue legal action
against the airline who at this point they hold primarily responsible.
Congress at the same time set up the Victim Compensation Fund in order for
families to receive full and fair compensation for economic and
non-economic damages. Of course that was after all families had to endure a
"collateral source deduction" something completely unheard of in any
state's civil court system.
The DOJ has decided to further add insult to injury by imposing
arbitrary "interim rules."
These rules require families to blindly sign up, thereby giving up
all their rights without knowing what their outcome will be. They are
being forced to accept a hearing process lasting on average 2 hours and
their only right to appeal would be under "extraordinary circumstances,"
which are not defined and left to open interpretation.
Moreover, the DOJ has imposed arbitrary income limits which severely
penalizes the very people who were victimize by this heinous attack, namely
those who work with in the financial industry.
I thought that I lived through it all after September 11th, but
these interim rules have so hurt the very people they were designed to
help, that they have left this American truly shocked and disheartened.
As a leader of strenght through out these dark days, I ask of you
Sir to please intervene on behalf of these families and insist that the
income caps be removed and the final rules please live up to the full
spirit of the legislation so that ALL who opt into the fund will be treated
in a fair and equitable manner.
The families of the victims ask for nothing more or less than what
these good people deserve. If our government turns it's back on these
families now in their time of need, then Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist
have won.
Sincerely,
Individual Comment