New York, NY – 9/11 Responders’ Lawyers Agree To Cut Fees from $200M to $115M

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    Rescue workers at the debris of The World Trade Center after the Sept. 12, 2001 attack.New York, NY – Lawyers who negotiated a massive settlement for 10,000 sickened Ground Zero workers have grudgingly agreed to forgo $85 million in legal fees, the Daily News has learned.

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    Attorneys at Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern sent a letter to Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who is overseeing the case, volunteering to lower legal fees and pass more money on to the ailing workers.

    Hellerstein and sick workers lambasted the lawyers when the deal was struck in March because the lawyers were set to take home a third of the roughly $600 million payout – almost $200 million – in legal fees. Now, they’ll accept 20% of the award – $115 million.

    “Our fees will be reduced under this court’s insistence that it would limit those fees to an even greater degree than we have voluntarily agreed to do,” the letter states.

    “We have …been influenced by the truly disheartening pressures visited upon us by the media and our own clients, both of whom seem to believe that we should have simply donated our time for these past seven years.”

    Hellerstein rejected the settlement in March, saying it was “not enough” for the sick workers.

    Early reactions to the letter from ailing workers were positive.

    “There is only one pie, and everyone is looking for a piece of it,” said Ernie Vallebuona, a retired cop who is sick with cancer. “The judge has asked them to find ways to get more to the people who were sick. If that does this, then it is a good move.”

    City lawyers who worked out the settlement in April accused Hellerstein of overstepping his legal bounds and interfering with a “private settlement.”

    “The judge’s statements and actions, together with his refusal to even consider other viewpoints, have made it necessary to appeal his rulings,” said Corporation Counsel Michael Cardozo.


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    8 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    This type of law is not rocket science. It should have been put out to bid in some way.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    Kudos to these “generous” lawyers. Their selfless act of taking “only” $115,000,000 in legal fees means that each worker gets roughly $8,000 more, or around $48,000 per person. The lawyers are still the big winners here.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    13 years ago

    $115M split over 7 years comes to $116.4M a year. How many lawyers were involved in it?

    qwert
    qwert
    13 years ago

    Based on the %-ages that the lawyers want (33.3%), then if Rubashkin is sentenced to 24 years, he should serve 16 and the lawyer (for doing a lousy job) should do the other 8

    Ex-Lawyer
    Ex-Lawyer
    13 years ago

    As a whole, lawyers are rapacious bunch…so glad I’m no longer in the profession. You know how the word is correctly spelled? $lawyer$ — they’ll take a handsome sum of money from you up-front…and your every last dollar by the time the case is over.

    Here are three favorite quotes about lawyers:

    “A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns.” Mario Puzo [from “The Godfather”]

    “A lawyer is a learned gentleman who rescues your estate from your enemies and keeps it for himself.” Henry Peter Brougham [19th century British politician]

    “Make crime pay. Become a lawyer.” Will Rogers [American humorist]

    Lawyer
    Lawyer
    13 years ago

    Dear Ex-Lawyer:

    If you were ever actually a lawyer, you should have well known that there is no upfront fee, otherwise known as a retainer in the legal field, on a contingency case such as the one above. The reason for the contingency fee is because the client or group of clients are not willing to pay the exorbitant costs of litigating such cases that have no guarantee of success. The lawyers risk all the costs and are therefore rightfully entitled to a higher return on the cases they win, to compensate for their risky investment. Too many plaintiffs omit many key facts in their cases and cause lawyers to sustain losses on such cases when the undisclosed detrimental facts are later discovered after substantial investment in their cases.

    To avoid your three problems above, make sure you obey the law and plan ahead, so that you don’t get caught in a legal situation where you can be taken advantage of. I wish you success in your newfound comedy career. Perhaps next time you will have a line of your own.