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The September 11 attacks transformed the first term of President George W. Bush and led to what he referred to as the war on terror. The accuracy of describing it as a "war" and its political motivations and consequences are the topic of strenuous debate. The U.S. government increased military operations, economic measures, and political pressure on groups that it accused of being terrorists, as well as increasing pressure on the governments and countries which were accused of sheltering them. October 2001 saw the first military action initiated by the US. Under this policy, NATO invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban regime and capture al-Qaeda forces.
The Montreal Convention is a multilateral treaty adopted by a diplomatic meeting of ICAO member states in 1999. It amended important provisions of the Warsaw Convention's regime concerning compensation for the victims of air disasters. The Convention attempts to re-establish uniformity and predictability of rules relating to the international carriage of passengers, baggage and cargo. Whilst maintaining the core provisions which have served the international air transport community for several decades, the treaty achieves modernization in a number of key areas. It protects passengers by introducing a two-tier liability system that eliminates the previous requirement of proving willful neglect by the air carrier to obtain more than US$75,000 in damages, which should eliminate or reduce protracted litigation.
A structured settlement is a negotiated financial or insurance arrangement through which a claimant agrees to resolve a personal injury tort claim by receiving part or all of a settlement in the form of periodic payments on an agreed schedule, rather than as a lump sum. As part of the negotiations, a structured settlement may be offered by the defendant or requested by the plaintiff. Ultimately both parties must agree on the terms of settlement. A settlement may allow the parties to a lawsuit to reduce legal and other costs by avoiding trial. Structured settlements are most widely used in the United States, but are also utilized in Canada, England and Australia.
Kenneth Roy Feinberg is an American attorney specializing in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. He served as the Chief of Staff to Senator Ted Kennedy, Special Master of the U.S. government's September 11th Victim Compensation Fund and the Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation. Additionally, Feinberg served as the government-appointed administrator of the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster Victim Compensation Fund. Feinberg was also appointed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to administer the One Fund—the victim assistance fund established in the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Feinberg was also retained by General Motors to assist in their recall response and by Volkswagen to oversee their U.S. compensation of VW diesel owners affected by the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Feinberg was hired by The Boeing Company in July 2019, to oversee distribution of $50 million to support 737 MAX crash victim families. Feinberg is also an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Law, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, New York University School of Law, the University of Virginia School of Law and at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.
VCF may refer to:
Personal injury is a legal term for an injury to the body, mind, or emotions, as opposed to an injury to property. In common law jurisdictions the term is most commonly used to refer to a type of tort lawsuit in which the person bringing the suit has suffered harm to their body or mind. Personal injury lawsuits are filed against the person or entity that caused the harm through negligence, gross negligence, reckless conduct, or intentional misconduct, and in some cases on the basis of strict liability. Different jurisdictions describe the damages in different ways, but damages typically include the injured person's medical bills, pain and suffering, and diminished quality of life.
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. That morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions of the East Coast to California. The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, two of the world's five tallest buildings at the time, and aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, D.C., in an attack on the nation's capital. The third team succeeded in striking the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia, while the fourth plane went down in rural Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt. The September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, the deadliest terrorist attack in human history, and instigated the multi-decade global war on terror, fought in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere.
The Office of Special Masters of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, popularly known as "vaccine court", administers a no-fault system for litigating vaccine injury claims. These claims against vaccine manufacturers cannot normally be filed in state or federal civil courts, but instead must be heard in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, sitting without a jury.
Tort reform consists of changes in the civil justice system in common law countries that aim to reduce the ability of plaintiffs to bring tort litigation or to reduce damages they can receive. Such changes are generally justified under the grounds that litigation is an inefficient means to compensate plaintiffs; that tort law permits frivolous or otherwise undesirable litigation to crowd the court system; or that the fear of litigation can serve to curtail innovation, raise the cost of consumer goods or insurance premiums for suppliers of services, and increase legal costs for businesses. Tort reform has primarily been prominent in common law jurisdictions, where criticism of judge-made rules regarding tort actions manifests in calls for statutory reform by the legislature.
The World Jewish Congress lawsuit against Swiss banks was launched in 1995 to retrieve deposits made into the three largest Swiss banks by victims of Nazi persecution during and prior to World War II. WJC negotiations were initiated with the Government of Switzerland and Swiss banks, and later expanded to cover Swiss insurance companies, over burdensome proof-of-ownership requirements for accounts and insurance policies. Strong support from both federal and state United States politicians and officials, threats of sanctions against the three Swiss banks, as well as leaked documents from a bank guard pressured a settlement of the suit in 1998 in a U.S. court for multiple classes of people affected by government and banking practices. The Swiss government itself was not a signatory to the deal. As of 2015, US$1.28 billion has been disbursed for 457,100 claimants.
Kreindler & Kreindler LLP is a U.S. law firm founded in 1950 with offices in New York, California and Massachusetts. The firm specializes in air disaster litigation and has represented plaintiffs in most major aviation disaster litigations. According to the New York Times, Lee Kreindler, a named partner of the firm, was "considered the founder of air disaster law."
Pigford v. Glickman (1999) was a class action lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), alleging that it had racially discriminated against African-American farmers in its allocation of farm loans and assistance from 1981 to 1996. The lawsuit was settled on April 14, 1999, by Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. To date, almost $1 billion US dollars have been paid or credited to fewer than 20,000 farmers under the settlement's consent decree, under what is reportedly the largest civil rights settlement until that point. Due to delaying tactics by U.S. government officials, more than 70,000 farmers were treated as filing late and thus did not have their claims heard. The 2008 Farm Bill provided for additional claims to be heard. In December 2010, Congress appropriated $1.2 billion for what is called "Pigford II," settlement for the second part of the case.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the September 11 attacks and their consequences:
The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Trust is the $20 billion trust fund established by BP to settle claims arising from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The fund was established to be used for natural resource damages, state and local response costs and individual compensation. It was established as Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), announced on 16 June 2010 after a meeting of BP executives with U.S. President Barack Obama. In June 2012, the settlement of claims through the GCCF was replaced by the court supervised settlement program.
The General Motors ignition switch recalls refers to February 6, 2014 when General Motors recalled about 800,000 of its small cars due to faulty ignition switches, which could shut off the engine while the vehicle was in motion and thereby prevent the airbags from inflating. The company continued to recall more of its cars over the next several months, resulting in nearly 30 million cars recalled worldwide and paid compensation for 124 deaths. The fault had been known to GM for at least a decade prior to the recall being declared. As part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement, GM agreed to forfeit $900 million to the United States.
In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001 is a multidistrict litigation (MDL) lawsuit that seeks redress for the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and their families. The suit is currently pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. It was originally filed in 2002 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia as Burnett v. Al Baraka Banking and Investment on behalf of a group of 600 9/11 survivors and family members who called themselves the 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism. The plaintiffs' group eventually grew to include more than 6,500 members.
Since the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, allegations of Saudi government involvement in the attacks have been made, with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia regularly denying such claims.
The Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA) is a law enacted by the United States Congress that narrows the scope of the legal doctrine of foreign sovereign immunity. It amends the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act and the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in regards to civil claims against a foreign state for injuries, death, or damages from an act of international terrorism on U.S. soil.
Worth is a 2021 American biographical film written and co-produced by Max Borenstein and directed by Sara Colangelo. Inspirated on the memoir by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, the film depicts Feinberg's handling of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. It starring Michael Keaton, Stanley Tucci, Amy Ryan, Tate Donovan, Talia Balsam, and Laura Benanti. The film premiered at 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 24, 2020, where it was acquired by Netflix and Higher Ground Productions. The film was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 27, 2021, followed by a streaming release on Netflix on September 3.
Michael Alden Barasch is an American lawyer who was a chief advocate for first responders and others harmed by toxic dust in Lower Manhattan caused by the September 11 attacks. He has represented thousands of seriously injured members of the New York City Fire Department and police officers of the New York Police Department, both for their personal injuries as well as to protect their pension benefits. This includes police officer James Zadroga, who developed pulmonary fibrosis as a result of his exposure to the deadly 9/11 toxins. His death persuaded the United States Congress to pass the “James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.” The act reopened the first 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) to provide benefits to those suffering with the harmful consequences of toxic exposure to the World Trade Center dust.
References
- ↑ Government statistics concerning 9-11 compensation program
- ↑ "Section 3: Awards and Payment | VCF". www.vcf.gov. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
- ↑ Dearie, John P. (2022-09-13). "How Do You Know If Your Illness Is Covered by the VCF?". 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund. Retrieved 2023-11-03.
- ↑ Feinberg, Kenneth (June 2012). Who Gets What: Fair Compensation after Tragedy and Financial Upheaval. New York City: PublicAffairs. ISBN 9781586489779.
- ↑ "September 11th Victim Compensation Fund: Compensation of Claims" (PDF). Federal Register. 83 (192): 49946–49947. 3 October 2018. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
- 1 2 3 Feinberg, Kenneth. What is Life Worth?: The Unprecedented Effort to Compensate the Victims of 9/11 (2005), Perseus Books Group. ISBN 9781586484514
- ↑ Harris, Andrew M. (2016-09-30). "Sept. 11 Widow Sues Saudi Arabia Following Congress Override". Bloomberg.
- ↑ DeMarche, Edmund. "Afghanistan's Karzai calls on Biden to reverse decision to unfreeze $3.5B for 9/11 victims". Fox News. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
- ↑ "Sept. 11 victims cannot seize Afghan central bank assets -U.S. judge" . Retrieved 2024-02-19.