Mass Tort Litigation Blog

Judge Approves WTC Disaster Site Settlement

Yesterday Judge Hellerstein held what the media is calling a "fairness" (in scare quotes) hearing on Wednesday and approved the settlement proposed for resolving the cases in the WTC Disaster Site litigation. Everyone was supportive, including Ken Feinberg.  

Here's an interesting twist:

Tom Hayes of the A/P reports that the judge appointed Roy Simon of Hofstra to monitor attorney-client communications on the plaintiffs' side: "The monitoring would, ostensibly, reduce the possibility that some clients could be bullied or frightened into accepting the deal, or misled about how much money they might stand to receive."  See the article here on MSNBC.com

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Feinberg Hits the Ground Running as BP Fund Director

According to the New York Times, he's called for speedier payouts to victims of the Gulf spill.  He is quoted as saying:

“Do not underestimate the anger and frustration of people in the Gulf, the uncertainty of not knowing what they’ll receive and when they’ll receive it."

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