Mr. Feinberg and the Gulf Settlement

[quiet.american]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/30/opinion/30mon1.html?ref=opinion?hp">NYT: Mr. Feinberg and the Gulf Settlement

Mr. Feinberg’s plans for distributing BP’s money, announced last Monday, seem magnanimous and fair. They would provide swift, short-term relief for Gulf Coast residents, and a process for measuring — and appropriately compensating — long-term losses. Mr. Feinberg must be willing to make adjustments along the way. But everyone will get a hearing, and his fund is sure to be vastly better than the BP operation it replaces.

...The program has two parts. Part one offers “emergency payments” equivalent to six months’ lost income to any legitimate claimant. People have 90 days to file from Aug. 23, and anyone who receives a payment still has a right to sue. These payments will almost certainly be larger and quicker than the average check — about $3,200 — that BP has already doled out to 127,000 individuals. They can now file again. Mr. Feinberg calls this part of the program a no-brainer, and we agree.

Part two is trickier. It aims to provide compensation — “final payments,” under the guidelines — to individuals and businesses for long-term damages. Claimants will have three years to estimate these damages and submit a claim. If they accept payment, they will waive their right to sue BP. As with the 9/11 fund, this part of the program is intended to be an expeditious, reliable alternative to tens of thousands of tort cases, sparing plaintiffs and the company alike the expense and uncertainty of drawn-out lawsuits.

In another sense, however, the BP fund is very different from the 9/11 fund. Then, the problem was to figure out how much a victim would have earned over the course of a working career, an agonizing but relatively straightforward actuarial exercise. In this case, where the full effects of the spill on, say, fish populations may not be known for years, it may be impossible for fishermen and Mr. Feinberg’s experts to make more than informed guesses. Mr. Feinberg says he is well aware of these uncertainties, but without a deadline the claims process will go on forever....

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The article also talks about how lawyers and politicians are sharpening their knives to go after Feinberg. I would not be surprised to learn many of them are "Joe Barton Republicans," apologizing to BP on the one hand, and claiming that Feinberg isn't doing enough on the other. On a personal note, after 9/11, two days after Christmas, I received a completely unexpected check from the Feinberg-administered 9/11 fund that was enough to take care of my expenses for a few months. (I had been working freelance at the World Financial Center on 9/11 and, as you can imagine, my job vanished into thin air.) Needless to say, I've never forgotten the name Ken Feinberg! I think he's a good choice for this task.

[Cha]

1. Thank you for this quiet.american..

There's always sharks going after those who are working to be equitable to all.

I know you'll never forget the name Ken Feinberg. :hug: I'm a big mush..I get all teary when I think about what you all went through on 9/11 & even more so since it's someone who I've felt is a kindred spirit over the years on DU.:)

Understood that you were one of the lucky ones and others had it so much worse but you were still all a part of the same community in Lower Manhatten and the healing is still going on.

Wishing the best for all those in the Gulf who are in need of Mr Feinberg's expertise on dispensing payments for the livelihood they would have received.

[quiet.american]

2. What a nice message, Cha. Thanks!

:hi: :hug:

[POAS]

3. Some people have said

that this part isn't true, "People have 90 days to file from Aug. 23, and anyone who receives a payment still has a right to sue."

Somehow I doubt that those voices won't be stilled by Mr. Feinberg's statement.

[Cha]

4. They'll say anything but

time proves them wrong and they really have no bearing on these people of the Gulf & their livelyhood claims.

Just so much chatter in the junkyard.