P000002
Wednesday, January 23, 2002 12:02 AM
(no subject)
Dear Mr. Feinberg,
My daughter was a victim of the attack on the World Trade Center.As we
all continue to deal with our losses and grief,I have watched many families
struggle with the realization of what their future financial circumstances
will be as a result of the implementation of the Victims Compensation Fund.I
continue to believe that the worst of these results were unintended, but they
are nonetheless real.
In authorizing the Fund, Congress significantly diminished the legal
rights of victims and their families by limiting the liability of the
airlines. While we can understand and support the economic considerations
underlying that decision, the decision nontheless substantially altered the
opportunities for redress. Regardless of one's views of the difficulties of
litigation in this case, the fact that many victims believe that under normal
procedures, they would have a reasonable opportunity to recover damages in
line with other cases dealt with in our legal system.
In removing these rights, it would have been fair to place the victims
in a comparable position. I think that many people would also accept some
reduction in exchange for the greater certainty and speed inherent in the
fund mechanism when compared to litigation. However, the Fund in fact puts
many claimants in a far worse position, and in a large number of cases there
will be no recovery.
The primary defects inthe current scheme are the collateral source
offset, the artificial cap on recovery of economic damages and a cap on
non-economic damages which bears no relation to awards routinely made in the
court system. None of these circumstances would be present if the claimants
were proceeding through normal litigation channels.
I have been in contact with many families, and I know the extent to which
they are suffering as a result of the current compensation structure. They
are forced to deal with the worst of personal losses and find themselves
denied recourse that would otherwise be theirs. The resulting anger and sense
of hopelessness should not have been added to their grief.
I have also found that these circumstances are adding to people's
disaffection with their government. There has been increasing evidence of the
government's failure over many years to recognize and respond evidence of
terrorist threats. With the government-mandated compensation system failing
to adequately address the needs of so many, people are quick to assign
responsibility to the government for the tragedy itself, as well as its
economic consequences. Again, whether this view is entirely supportable is
not the issue; the fact is that these feelings are widespread and, while
perhaps not foreseeable at the time the legislation was enacted, should be
addressed in the only meaningful way available, which is to remedy the
defects in the compensation plan.
Individual Comment