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September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, commonly known as the VCF, was a U.S. government fund that was created by an Act of Congress shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The purpose of the fund was to compensate the victims of the attacks and their families with the quid pro quo of their agreement not to file lawsuits against the airline corporations involved, such as American Airlines and United Airlines. The VCF functions similar to the Social Security Administration, in that part of the annual U.S. federal budget is set aside for the specific purpose of paying out victims, although this process is heavily regulated. Medical treatments for several respiratory diseases, including asthma and sleep apnea, as well as for all forms of cancer, are covered by the VCF.
Kenneth Feinberg was appointed by Attorney General John Ashcroft to be special master of the fund. He developed the regulations governing the administration of the fund and administered all aspects of the program. Legislation authorizes the fund to disburse a maximum of $7.375 billion, including operational and administrative costs, of U.S. government funds.
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund was formally established by an Act of Congress in the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (49 USC 40101).
Feinberg was responsible for making the decisions on how much each family of a victim would receive. Feinberg had to estimate how much each victim would have earned in a full lifetime. If a family accepted the offer, it was not possible to appeal. Families unhappy with the offer were able to appeal in a nonadversarial, informal hearing to present their case however they wanted. Feinberg personally presided over more than 900 of the 1,600 hearings. At the end of the process $7 billion was awarded to 97% of the families. A non-negotiable clause in the acceptance papers for the settlements was that the families were to never file suit against the airlines for any lack of security or otherwise unsafe procedures.
A stumbling block to settlements was that many of the World Trade Center victims were highly compensated financial professionals. Families of these victims felt the compensation offers were too low, and, had a court considered their case on an individual basis, they would have been awarded much higher amounts. This concern had to be balanced against the time, complications, and risks of pursuing an individual case, and the real possibility that the airlines and their insurers could be bankrupted before being able to pay the claim.
This is a separate fund from the similarly named September 11th Fund, and from the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company.
In his book titled What is Life Worth?, Feinberg described the eight-part plan which was applied to approaching the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (see Publications section below).
(i) Identify someone with sufficient and exceptionally broad experience in mass tort action mediation, litigation, and settlement, which Feinberg possessed through his previous personal experience as a political activist and his work in the Agent Orange compensation settlement.
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September 11th Victim Compensation Fund
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, commonly known as the VCF, was a U.S. government fund that was created by an Act of Congress shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The purpose of the fund was to compensate the victims of the attacks and their families with the quid pro quo of their agreement not to file lawsuits against the airline corporations involved, such as American Airlines and United Airlines. The VCF functions similar to the Social Security Administration, in that part of the annual U.S. federal budget is set aside for the specific purpose of paying out victims, although this process is heavily regulated. Medical treatments for several respiratory diseases, including asthma and sleep apnea, as well as for all forms of cancer, are covered by the VCF.
Kenneth Feinberg was appointed by Attorney General John Ashcroft to be special master of the fund. He developed the regulations governing the administration of the fund and administered all aspects of the program. Legislation authorizes the fund to disburse a maximum of $7.375 billion, including operational and administrative costs, of U.S. government funds.
The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund was formally established by an Act of Congress in the Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (49 USC 40101).
Feinberg was responsible for making the decisions on how much each family of a victim would receive. Feinberg had to estimate how much each victim would have earned in a full lifetime. If a family accepted the offer, it was not possible to appeal. Families unhappy with the offer were able to appeal in a nonadversarial, informal hearing to present their case however they wanted. Feinberg personally presided over more than 900 of the 1,600 hearings. At the end of the process $7 billion was awarded to 97% of the families. A non-negotiable clause in the acceptance papers for the settlements was that the families were to never file suit against the airlines for any lack of security or otherwise unsafe procedures.
A stumbling block to settlements was that many of the World Trade Center victims were highly compensated financial professionals. Families of these victims felt the compensation offers were too low, and, had a court considered their case on an individual basis, they would have been awarded much higher amounts. This concern had to be balanced against the time, complications, and risks of pursuing an individual case, and the real possibility that the airlines and their insurers could be bankrupted before being able to pay the claim.
This is a separate fund from the similarly named September 11th Fund, and from the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company.
In his book titled What is Life Worth?, Feinberg described the eight-part plan which was applied to approaching the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (see Publications section below).
(i) Identify someone with sufficient and exceptionally broad experience in mass tort action mediation, litigation, and settlement, which Feinberg possessed through his previous personal experience as a political activist and his work in the Agent Orange compensation settlement.