Judge Rejects Legal Fees in Ground Zero Settlement
OPS_admin | Aug 28, 2010 | Comments 0
The federal judge overseeing the settlement between ground zero workers and the city over health issues told the plaintiffs’ lawyers on Friday that they should absorb $6.1 million in legal expenses they had intended to pass on to their clients.
The judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan, disallowed the charges at a hearing after rejecting lawyers’ justifications for the expenses, which involved interest paid on loans that helped finance about $30 million in litigation costs. Those loans had been at interest rates of 14 percent to 18 percent, and would have reduced the workers’ individual settlement amounts by from $78.23 to $2,300, on average.
Paul J. Napoli of Worby Groner Edelman and Napoli Bern Ripka, the law partnership representing the bulk of the more than 10,000 workers, argued that without the borrowed money, “it would not have been possible to litigate this case.” But Judge Hellerstein said that while he did not question the appropriateness or ethics of borrowing the money, he was concerned about the fairness of making the clients pay for it.
“The clients are entitled to the maximum return possible,” he said.
Full Story: Judge Rejects Legal Fees in Ground Zero Settlement – NYTimes.com.
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If we don't change our ways soon...
A new report by the Royal Society, chaired by Nobel prize-winning biologist Sir John Sulston warns that world population must be stabilized and consumption in wealthy nations must be reduced or the entire planet is in big trouble. As the report reads: "The number of people living on the planet has never been higher, their levels of consumption are unprecedented and vast changes are taking place in the environment. We can choose to rebalance the use of resources to a more egalitarian pattern of consumption... or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward spiral of economic and environmental ills leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future."This is the same warning that President Jimmy Carter gave Americans back in the 1970's - but it was ignored when Ronald Reagan came to power with a "more positive" message basically telling Americans we can do whatever we want. And then after 9/11 - Bush told us all we should go shopping and consume ever more.And now with corporations calling the shots in Washington - long-term sustainability of the planet takes a back seat to short-term profits. If we don't change our ways soon - and embrace clean, alternative energy and educate women around the plant - then we all could be headed for a rough century.-Thom(Is there any chance we will learn in time? Tell us here.) -
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