9/11 Victim Blog

The new Zadroga 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund law will benefit:
1. Sanitation workers. 2. Window washers near Ground Zero. 3. Commercial cleaners in the building or areas surrounding Ground Zero. 4. Porters, janitors, and others who cleaned the toxic dust and debris and fallout from Ground Zero. 5. City workers and private carting and sanitation workers who removed the debris and refuge from the 9/11 sites, including along route to any dump or landfill. 6. Barge and other maritime workers (dockworkers, captains, and others) who helped move the debris from Ground Zero and the surrounding areas. 7. Truck drivers and their helpers who transported or handled the debris and materials from the World Trade Center or the nearby areas. 8. Transfer station workers who handled or helped move debris and materials from the 9/11 sites.

Click here for Answers to Frequently Asked Zadroga 9/11 Act Questions
Click here for a Brief Zadroga Act Summary
Click here for a list of Zadroga Law Deadlines
Click here for a Detailed Summary of the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act

What attorney’s fee amount can be properly charged by a lawyer representing a 9/11 first responder, construction worker or clean-up worker who also now wants to file a claim under the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund? In other words, under the Zadroga Act, individuals who settled their lawsuit who also file a WTC Victims Compensation Fund claim will never pay more than a 10 percent attorney’s fee on all amounts received (the total received from the settled lawsuit plus the amount awarded by the Fund). The final question is whether it is difficult to switch to a new attorney to file a claim under the Victims Compensation Fund? The answer is “NO”.

The Zadroga 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund now covers utility workers who were restoring electrical and phone service during the massive clean-up efforts in the months following the attacks at any time until May 30, 2002.
workers and volunteers that were crucial to the cleanup efforts were the utility workers such as Con Ed, Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and other utility workers who worked in the WTC area in the 8 1/2 months after 9/11.

Are downtown Manhattan residents who were exposed to toxic dust as a result of the 9/11 attacks and clean up eligible for a Victims’ Compensation Fund (VCF) Award under the new Zadroga 9/11 Act? The answer is YES, according to Congressman Jerrold Nadler, Co-Author of the Zadroga Act. As reported in The Tribeca Trib, there is confusion regarding Zadroga 9/11 Act eligibility for downtown Manhattan residents.

New England Journal of Medicine has found that many of the rescue workers and responders to the World Trade Center attacks continued to suffer breathing difficulties that did not improve in the years since being exposed to the toxic dust and debris. 9/11 WTC workers who inhaled the thick dust at Ground Zero and nearby have not just the “World Trade Center Cough,” but also bronchitis, asthma and symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and decresed lung function.