New Ground Zero Deal Gives Plaintiffs $712.5 Million

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/nyregion/11zero.html?ref=nyregion


Lawyers for the city and about 10,000 rescue and cleanup workers who say their health was damaged at ground zero announced Thursday that they had negotiated a new, $712 million settlement to replace one that a federal judge rejected three months ago.

The new pact drew a vigorous endorsement from the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of United States District Court in Manhattan, who had said the previous one, amounting to $657 million, was too small.

Heeding another complaint from the judge, lawyers for the workers agreed to reduce their fees to one-quarter of the total payout rather than the one-third called for in the lawyers’ original agreement with their clients.

Judge Hellerstein, who has emerged as a passionate advocate for firefighters, police officers and other workers and volunteers who have suffered ailments they attribute to the toxic debris of the World Trade Center, had stunned and angered lawyers for both sides when he unilaterally rejected the first deal on March 19.

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. ty for posting this.

I know the oil spill overshadows a lot of news right now.
My fear is that in a few years we will be reading about Gulf Coast people with health problems.

[Rage for Order]

2. The lawyers get $178 million?

Nice