Compensation?
By Ben Berkowitz
BOSTON (Reuters) - Victims of the Boston Marathon bombings will eventually win some kind of compensation, but it is far too early to know how much money there will be, whether private donors or insurers will provide most of it, and how long it might take to distribute.
Late on Tuesday, state and city officials said they had established One Fund Boston, designed as a central source of compensation for victims. John Hancock, a Boston-based insurer owned by Manulife Financial Corp, has contributed $1 million in seed money. Boston law firm Goodwin Procter will run it.
What happens next will depend in part on whether individual victims choose to hire lawyers to press their own claims. Judging from previous catastrophes, experts say victims have an easier path if they settle with a central relief fund, rather than pursue lawsuits against governments, race sponsors or perpetrators.
A fund is "the easiest, the fairest and the quickest way to go," said Marc Bern, a lawyer who represented thousands of workers at the World Trade Center site in litigation over illnesses related to the 9/11 attacks.
"The most important thing for the victims of these kinds of tragedies is a quick solution," he said, even if that means surrendering the right to sue others for even more compensation later.
Monday's attack killed three and wounded more than 170. Many of the survivors suffered amputations that will require prolonged medical treatment and rehabilitation.
The parameters of the One Fund Boston are still unclear and may not be known for days or weeks. A spokesman for Goodwin Procter could not immediately comment on when victims or their families could start filing claims, and whether the fund would handle claims on a case-by-case basis or in groups.
Such questions will have to be answered before anyone can get paid, according to Kenneth Feinberg, the Washington attorney who administered funds set up after 9/11 and the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings.
"If you take the money, do you give up your right to litigate against the city of Boston or the marathon association? Who's eligible?" said Feinberg, considered the world's foremost expert on disaster compensation.
