Who has information on the final tally of the WTC settlement payments?

[The Backlash Cometh]

Although I have a relative who is involved, I'm not in a position to ask. I've only seen them once in the last few years because our relationship became strained when that side of the family started to trash "those lazy, welfare queened, criminally bent hispanics and blacks."

Anyway, this last time we met, they were on their best behavior, probably because they know it won't take much for me to walk away from the lot of them. If you could erase the obvious prejudices and the political damage of the last six years, and if you can get over the fact that they're caught up with the suburban New York Republican mentality of "the world owes us a life-style," they are nice people. However, I want to be prepared if that all changes and they start trashing the taxes Democrats will want to put aside to help the poor. So, how much average money did they all get? Was it settlement money to stop lawsuits against the government? Do the recepients of this money know it's gag money?

I know it has to be a lot of money because they built a million dollar second residence.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. I know that if you were a rescue worker

either from NYPD or FDNY who got killed in the WTC, that their families got paid very, very well. Set for life, is how one women's brother described her to me. She also gets a free cruise every year from Carnival cruise lines for herself and her children.

As for the rest of the people that were killed, most of the families took the settlement offered by the government, which required signing away their rights to sue. I forget what the amount of the settlements were, but I'll dig around and see if I can find the info. I remember it was 'substantial' and enough to make most people go for the sure thing, rather then take their chances in court.

[wildbilln864]

2. I saw a wife and daughter on Oprah the other...

day and she said she has blown $5 million which she recieved as compensation!

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Hope she had a good time in the process

Some people just don't know how to handle money.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Found a reference to the settlement deal

Feinberg dismissed the idea that victims' families would rather take their chances in the courts than accept the federal settlement, which requires giving up legal rights to sue.

Some families "are emotionally not ready to file," Feinberg said. " saying, 'How can I put pencil to paper and fill out the application form?' "

The average claim paid out by the fund is roughly $1.6 million, although some payments have far exceeded that number. The minimum award for a death claim is $250,000.

http://www.911lawhelp.org/info/news/9_3_03.htm


Here's a good article from Time with the details about how they calculated the individual settlements:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,198866,00.html