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Miami lawyer heads up ATLA’s 9-11 Attorneys Task Force Miami lawyer heads up ATLA’s 9-11 Attorneys Task Force Associate EditorMiami lawyer Larry Scott Stewart is launching a monumental project by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America to provide free legal services to the families of thousands of victims of the terrorist attacks who choose to receive compensation through an expedited federal fund. “As an association, we all felt the grief and the horrible consequences that these people were confronted with. We wanted to step up and do something for them in a small way to help the families of victims through this terrible time,” said Stewart, past president of ATLA in 1994-95 who has been named chair of the ATLA 9-11 Attorneys Task Force. “We are literally looking at the potential of representing 6,000 families, each with their own story to tell, each one with their own grief and their own problems. It’s not a small task to set this up,” Stewart said. The huge project is a lot like setting up a brand new law office in New York: renting space and equipment, hiring support staff, and rallying enough volunteer lawyers from around the country to take on potentially thousands of clients. ATLA, which is setting up a finance committee to raise money for office expenses, will be working with the New York Trial Lawyers. “I don’t think any of us have come to grips yet with the enormity of what it will take to handle these claims,” Stewart said two days after learning of his new role that coincided with a bill passed by Congress September 21. “It will be an extraordinary emotional process. Every time you turn on the news media, you see another story. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, everywhere you look it does get worse. There’s another story and another story and another story. Each victim has their own story to be told. That’s what this will be all about.” To make the endeavor even more daunting is a 90-day deadline set by Congress to have regulations in place to begin the enormous compensation effort. While the federal government hustled to bail out the ravaged airline industry, with both an infusion of cash to cover losses and immunity from lawsuits, ATLA spoke up about compensating the lost lives and injured victims of the horrific tragedy. “We said, ‘Look, if you are going to give relief to the airlines, which they certainly deserve, there ought to be an equal commitment by the U.S. government to the victims. And the commitment should be in the amount and magnitude of not less than what it has done for the airlines,’” said Stewart. With that encouragement from ATLA, U.S. Congress passed a bill, called the September 11th Compensation Act of 2001, creating an administrative Victims’ Compensation Fund to pay the claims of all victims – in the air and on the ground – of the attacks at three crash sites, including rescue workers. Though it was not part of the deal with Congress, ATLA offered pro bono legal services to any family choosing to pursue justice through the fund, which has no discrete amount, and will be administered by a special master. The fund will compensate – with full economic and non-economic compensatory damages – “any individual (or relative of a deceased individual) who was physically injured or killed as a result of the terrorist-related aircraft crashes of September 11, 2001,” who opts into the program. Claimants do not have to prove negligence or any other theory of liability. If they choose not to participate in the fund, victims may still pursue traditional remedies through the civil justice system. “At least 7,000 families are hurting more than any of us can imagine. And, because the first priority of every American should be prompt and full justice for the thousands of families who know firsthand the unspeakable horror visited upon the world on September 11, 2001, members of ATLA will provide free legal services to any family wishing to pursue justice through the fund established by this unprecedented, humanitarian legislation,” ATLA President Leo V. Boyle said in a September 21 letter sent to the members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. “ATLA believes that 100 percent of the compensation from the fund should go directly to the families. The officers and Executive Committee of ATLA have volunteered to be the first attorneys to provide legal services free of charge under this program,” Boyle continued. And that’s where Stewart’s assignment comes in. “This is as big as any class-action lawsuit there has been in the United States up to this time,” Stewart said. “And in many ways, this is bigger, because there is a discrete amount of money in class actions and it’s a matter of divvying it up. In this, proof will have to be brought forward.” Stewart declined to speculate on what a ball-park figure families of victims could expect to be compensated. The federal fund deadlines are tight: From the date a claim is filed, lawyers will be required to finish a claim in 120 days. And 20 days after that, the special master has to certify claim for payment. “We’re looking at getting money in the hands of the families very quickly. By the beginning of the year, the money will be flowing to the families of the victims, unlike in litigation where it’s tied up for years and years. This is one of the things we insisted on: Get the money to the families. They need it,” Stewart said. And lawyers – who typically get one-third of damages – won’t make a dime on this pro bono project. “For years and years, people we sue have been doing everything to demonize us, and through enormous propaganda have painted us as interested only in money, greed and self-interest,” Stewart said. “I really think, at the end of the day, when we look back on this, they will say this is the finest hour for trial lawyers in this country.” For more information on ATLA’s pro bono program, visit its web site at www.atlanet.org. October 15, 2001 Jan Pudlow Associate Editor Regular News read more