Now that a federal judge has declared the $575+ million settlement between the city and about 10,000 September 11 first responders is inadequate, the Daily News reports that two lawyers for 9,000 plaintiffs say they "never meant to pressure clients to accept" the deal."
The $575 million deal—which could grow to up to $657 million if 100% of the plaintiffs agreed to it—would have had payouts ranging from as little as $3,250-9,750 to as much as $1-2 million, resulting in anaverage payout around $60,000. With legal fees of up to 40%, lawyers Marc Bern and Paul Napoli could rake in well over $170 million. But last week, Judge Alvin Hellerstein said that not only the settlement was too low, "Every plaintiff here is burdened by a lawyer's fee that is hard to gauge and will take a large bite out of every [settlement]."
The News points out that on Friday, Bern and Napoli's firm called the settlement "superior" to the proposed James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, though the Zadroga bill would provide $350,000, as well as free medical care, to the sickened; also, settlement takers wouldn't be able to participate in the Zadroga bill. Bern (pictured) now says, "We continue to strongly support the bill and urge Congress to make it clear in the final legislation that by signing on to the settlement, workers will not be precluded from taking advantage of Zadroga."
