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Framing The Choice Between Cash And Courthouse: Experiences With The 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, Gillian K. Hadfield

Gillian K Hadfield

In this paper I report the results of a quantitative and qualitative empirical study of how those who were injured or lost a family member in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks evaluated the tradeoff between a cash payment--available through the Victim Compensation Fund--and the pursuit of litigation. Responses make it clear that potential plaintiffs saw much more at stake than monetary compensation and that the choice to forego litigation required the sacrifice of important non-monetary, civic, values: obtaining and publicizing information about what happened, prompting public findings of accountability for those responsible, and participating in the process of ensuring …