(Newswire.net— May 30, 2022) —
9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Calculations
The terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11th, 2001 led to devastating effects at the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and the Pennsylvania and Shanksville crash sites. Years after the attacks, many people developed health complications due to the exposure to the toxins associated with the crash and attacks. The Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization Act (49 USC 40101) formulated the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund popularly known as VCF to give compensation to the families whose relatives were affected by the attacks.
In return, the victims agreed not to file suits against the airlines. Kenneth Freiburg was appointed to oversee all the litigation matters related to the September 11th VCF. He came up with all the regulations and policies that governed the fund’s work. He also handled most of the litigation matters of the fund.
The VCF defined a victim as any person who was at the sites of attacks at any point between September 11th, 2001, and May 30th, 2002 and got injured or developed health complications afterward due to the exposure to the toxins at the Shanksville crash site, the Pentagon, or Ground Zero. Thus, the victim could have been there in any building office, daycare, or school or working as a responder during and after the attacks.
The September 11th VCF provided financial compensation to the victims for non-economic and economic losses. The program also involved compensating the families whose relatives died from the 9/11 attacks. Additionally, the Zadroga Bill created WTCHP, a health program that provides free testing and treatment to the victims for all the years they lived after the terrorist attacks.
The WTCHP has to certify the health condition of the victims before they can be considered for the 9/11 VCF. The WTCHP certification procedure implies that a doctor must officially diagnose a victim with cancer or another covered condition. Apart from the 68 cancers, PTSD and Aerodigestive disorders such as Asthma are also covered by the program.
Any person lodging pain and suffering claims must complete a claim form application and submit all the necessary records and documents supporting the claims. According to the application procedure, all claimants must submit documents that prove they were in Lower Manhattan within the stated period defined by the VCF. The Victim Compensation Fund is not only limited to the first responders but also made available to all those who worked in the construction or volunteered in the debris removal and clean-up.
A non-economic loss and an economic loss are the awards they offer. A non-economic loss termed as pain and suffering includes losses for injury and death. The economic losses are the direct effects a victim faces due to a physical injury, and they include the already lost earnings and those expected to be lost in the future.
Even though every victim’s claim is unique, according to a government executive summary, a standard system has been developed to calculate the awards given to each victim with an eligible claim. The award amount given is the total sum of the non-economic and economic losses minus the collateral offsets.