Associated Press
NEW YORK — The judge overseeing thousands of health lawsuits from Ground Zero workers Monday gave what appeared to be a pessimistic assessment of efforts to meet his demands for improvement of a proposed settlement of up to $657 million, saying there has been little progress. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, who last month demanded more money and smaller legal fees for workers as a condition of his approving the deal, made the comments to a roomful of lawyers attending a meeting on how to handle thousands of cases that have been stayed during settlement talks.
"No one's reported any progress," Hellerstein said. "I have no idea what's going on."
The settlement, announced in March, calls for responders to receive between $575 million and $657 million, with individual payments depending on the severity of the injury. It would be paid by the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Company, which received $1 billion from Congress to insure the city.
Hellerstein called for more money and lower attorney fees, among other changes, to win his approval of the fairness of the deal. He had scheduled Monday for a fairness hearing, but late last week postponed it until April 27.
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Lawyers involved in the talks for the city and the plaintiffs have refused to describe the progress, but said they had been meeting with two "special masters" appointed by Hellerstein to help oversee the cases.
After yesterday's hearing, Hellerstein held separate private sessions in his chambers with lawyers for the plaintiffs and defendants.
NEW YORK €" The judge overseeing thousands of health lawsuits from Ground Zero workers Monday gave what appeared to be a pessimistic assessment of efforts to meet his demands for improvement of a proposed settlement of up to $657 million, saying there has been little progress.
