Court Rules families may sue over 9/11

Okay folks, let's hear it.

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The judge's action will complicate efforts by Washington to persuade families of the more than 3,000 victims to accept compensation through a government-controlled fund established by Congress within days after the attacks. The US government has tried to dissuade families from suing by offering them generous payouts without the risks and delays of a court case.

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Full story here

Personally I think this insane. How greedy have we become? I am sorry for the families, the people who died, the firefighters, the police officers, and the state of New York. But this really pisses me off.

Let's look at this in another way. Allowing these lawsuits to go foward , would be as crazy as allowing victims of the Oklahoms City bombing to sue the grain industry, diesel fuel refineries, and those people at uhaul. REspectivley for not keeping there items out of the hands of a domestic terrorist.

No, the state of Oklahoma pulled together, and cleaned up the mess. I personally helped raise 25,000 dollars for the victims, clean up, and relief for the emergency workers.

I am so sick of judges in this country passing the buck. I am so sick of people using the court system as an instant loto ticket.

Terrorists did this.

Be safe and stay free

So they are suing because one of their family members was in the wrong place at the wrong time? If some one comes into my work and starts shooting people, can my family sue for me being here? I dont think they should be able to. It was my choice to work here, and my choice to come to work on that day. Only person they should be able to sue is the shooter. If he gets killed, then oh well. This is how I percieve things, how about everyone else?

Okay, so I agree that the suing thing has gone a little far in the US, but let's try to look at it from a different perspective, just for one minute.

Mom is home with the 2 kids that she has stayed home with from the time they were born while Dad earns a living (or reverse it, it can go both ways now) and suddenly dad is killed in an event like this. Do you know how hard it is to get a job when you've been out of the workplace for several years? Do you know how much daycare costs? Do you know what it costs for one trip to the doctor (remember, dad was working, not mom, so there is no more health insurance, or dental insurance, or anything like that). Not to mention the therapy that both mom and the kids probably need after dad was blown up by terrorists. Do you know how much it costs to go back to school to be able to go back to work? Granted they probably had life insurance. But start doing the math. Assuming a $100,000 life insurance policy...sounds like a lot, doesn't it? But start taking $1000/month out for rent/mortgage. And $300 at least for a car payment. And car insurance. And food. And electricity. And tuition. And daycare. And clothes/shoes/school supplies for the kids. And remember, we're only talking about 2 kids...add a couple more and see where you wind up. And we haven't gotten to college yet. Or even high school, and proms, and graduation and senior trips, and pictures, and yearbooks, and a way for your child to get to and from all these places....

Suing may not be the best answer, but when your entire life has been turned upside down, you have no skills to take care of your family, you have to turn somewhere. You have to do what you can to survive. It may not seem right to you, but until you walk a mile in their shoes....

Yes I understand that it is a hard thing for them to go through considering Financial problems and the loss of a family member who provided for the family. But didn't the governement offer them a lot of money to help them out? I think that these people should get a job. That might sound cruel or what not, but use the money they got from the Governmet to support themselves for a little bit, but be looking for a job. I think this thing about sueing the Port Authority, airlines and government because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time is completely absurd.

I do feel sorry for those family members, but not sorry enough to agree with them that they shold sue for that reason. They need to get a job, and go on with life. I lost my father 2 years ago, but I didn't start trying to find a way to get money out of the whole thing. I went on with life knowing that everyday is uncertain. Who knows if we'll die tommorrow or 50 years from now.

So to sum this up I guess, I'm just saying that these people should go on with the rest of their lives. They should still remember their lost loved ones of course but they need to continue with their life. 9/11 is a thing of the past now, though it will be in our memories forever.

I'm not saying they shouldn't get a job, but realistically, when you've been out of the job market for years...it ain't that easy to "get a job", and working at McDonalds isn't going to do a lot of good, they're just going to wind up on welfare then to support their kids. I worked in a bank for several years, finishing my career there as VP of the loan dept. I have been out of the job market for about 3 years now, considerably less time than most of these people probably have, and I can't even get a job as a receptionist now. Once you are "out of the rat race" getting back in is very hard to do. The best way to do it is to go back to school and who is going to take care of their families while they are doing that? And seriously, the money for daycare is outrageous, so working a part time low-paying job while you go to school is a losing situation, because you are going to wind up paying more for daycare than you are going to earn. 3 years ago, my son was 5.....that is a cheap age for daycare, it's more expensive the younger they are. It cost me over $900/mo all together for daycare. And I'm not even in a part of the country that has a high cost of living.

Yes, the govt is offering money...but there are people who haven't received a dime yet because of red tape. How are they supposed to keep feeding their families?

debwalin - I agree with you. You can't place a value on what a house wife/husband does. Once they have been out of the work force any extended amount of time it is very difficult to return. I suffered from this catastrophy also. I didn't lose anybody dear to me. I lost my job, as did hundreds of thousands of other people. I worked on an assembly line building these airplanes. I went from making close to 50k my second year back down to 18k on unemployment. That included an average of around 75 hours a week. You know what? I loved my job. I would still be there today, if I hadn't been laid off. Now I can't even get a job at McDonalds making much more than 15k a year. So now I can go into seriouse debt, or work two full timers and hope to make ends meet. All because the ceo of Textron decided it was time for a lay off. He blamed 9/11 for the layoffs. He fired the ceo of Cessna, their daughter company. Then a month later hires a clown for a contract of three years. 15 million dollars, plus a signing bonus of 10 million. All the monies we're paid up front in a lump sum. But 15,000 people got laid off. I can't even get some money to go to school because I made too much money last year. The money for schooling for the laid off was spent way before I had a chance. So now what am I supposed to do with schooling in Sheetmetal, Airframe, and powerplant?

Then a judge decides that he is going to allow a lawsuit. So maybe I should sue the people who are trying to sue these big companies for prolonging my layoff.

I am just going on and on now. I am gonna stop here, and come back later perhaps and try again.

Anyone who dares to be, can never be weak.

Wow, thats crazy. Why do Americans ( not all of course ) sue so much, over here it would be a pretty big thing to sue someone or the state unless something major happened.

Imagine if all the victims of the Northen Irish conflict, thats 30 years of terror never mind a day decided to sue the British or Irish government...

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Originally posted here by Ennis
Imagine if all the victims of the Northen Irish conflict, thats 30 years of terror never mind a day decided to sue the British or Irish government...

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Maybe they should.......
**sorry thats just the American inside me.**

It is pretty crazy over here Ennis as far as thats concerned. It just doesn't make sense to me. People suing Mcdonalds because the coffe cup never said it was hot coffe. People suing fast food restaurants because they're making them fat??? Its all crazy. Now we have people wanting to sue the government because one of their family memebers was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Whats the world coming to??

Next year we'll probably be suing Stores for making us walk so much therefore wearing out our shoes. I wouldn't be suprised if that happened.

Remember that every penny they recieve must be taken from
some other hard working person who has problems of his own.

Look at all the voluntary charity that was generated by this
catastrophe.

and last but not least.

THE RICH DO NOT PAY TAXES. THE RICH COLLECT TAXES.
:cool:

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THE RICH DO NOT PAY TAXES. THE RICH COLLECT TAXES.

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What proof do you have rcgreen?

I know several people that have a considerable amount of money but they lose about 15-30,000 a year just on taxes. So from what I've seen, everyone pays taxes.

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What proof do you have rcgreen?

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It's a play on words. Remember Leona Helmsley

http://www.bartleby.com/66/43/27743.html

She went to jail, not, IMO, for tax evasion, but for having the brass
to boast about it. If you pay taxes, you are obviously not really
rich because, by my definition, those who have the power to force
others to pay are the ones with the real wealth, which
is to say POWER
:cool:

Tax the rich, phew, wouldnt that be a novel idea.

The rich get richer, the poor pay taxes. The proofs in the economics, tax rates and books, I dont live in your country so you will have to do your own research.

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I know several people that have a considerable amount of money but they lose about 15-30,000 a year just on taxes. So from what I've seen, everyone pays taxes.

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Must be nice to lose that kind of money in taxes. I'm gonna have to work two jobs to make that kind of money. So tell those rich people

Cry me a river, build a bridge, and get the **** over it.

I don't know if the cases the survivors of the 9/11 victims have are valid, that will be determined in court. Sueing is not the same as collecting, sometimes cases are lost. Allowing the cases to go forward means those survivors will get a CHANCE for redress in court.

People forget that all of the airlines were in financial trouble before 9/11, they just found a way to blame their years of mismanagement on someone else.

I work for the postal service, email has been moving in on our volumes over the last few years, I haven't heard too many postal employees blaming the Anthrax scare for shrinking mail volumes. Why should the airlines get away with their PR coup?

I've always thought it was ironic that while companies are laying off, screaming poverty etc the CEO's keeping making obscene paychecks. And then some poor sucker has the nerve to sue their companies? Then the conservatives want to protect these overstuffed, overpaid CEO's from class action suits. Leona Helmsley had it right... "Taxes are for the "little" people"

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People forget that all of the airlines were in financial trouble before 9/11, they just found a way to blame their years of mismanagement on someone else.

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The interesting thing about this lay off. If these big coorperations lay us off, let our senority drop, then they can cut our pay back to base. That is at least five dollar cut for all of us. Then they get big bonuses for themselves.