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Legal News

  • World Trade Center Settlement Gets Backing Needed to Take Effect
    – New York Law Journal
    (November 22, 2010) Enough plaintiffs have accepted a massive settlement of claims alleging respiratory and other health problems from the post-9/11 response and cleanup at the World Trade Center site to seal the deal. Read more…

  • 10,563 Ground Zero 9/11 Workers Agree On $625 Million Settlement
    – Medical News Today
    (November 21, 2010) 10,563 ground zero workers who inhaled toxic dust and risked health consequences have agreed on a $625 settlement and ceased suing - the amount could go as high as $815 million.
    Read more…

  • 9/11 Health Deal Gets OK
    – The Wall Street Journal
    (November 20, 2010) More than 95% of Ground Zero workers agreed to accept a settlement of long-running litigation over respiratory diseases and other injuries suffered in recovery operations following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.
    Read more…

  • Deal settles most lawsuits over WTC toxic dust
    – The Associated Press (AP)
    (November 19, 2010) A deal reached by New York City and workers exposed to toxic dust that blanketed ground zero after Sept. 11 will resolve an overwhelming majority of the lawsuits over the city's failure to provide protective equipment to the responders. Read more…

  • Ground Zero workers exposed to toxic dust take pay deal
    – BBC
    (November 19, 2010) Thousands of workers exposed to toxic dust after the 2001 terror attacks in New York have accepted a legal settlement and ceased litigation. Read more…

  • Lawyers: Sickened 9/11 Workers Reach Settlement Deal With City
    – NY1
    (November 19, 2010) By Friday, more than 10,000 people who became ill from working conditions at the World Trade Center site following the September 11th terrorist attacks had accepted a settlement deal with the city. Read more…

     

Press Release

STATEMENT ABOUT OUR ADVERTISMENT REPORTED IN NEW YORK POST

New York, New York  March 28, 2011.  For immediate release:  The law firm representing more than ten thousand injured World Trade Center workers responded today to allegations by the New York Post that a print advertisement directed toward potential claimants under the Zadroga Health and Compensation Act was improper or misleading.  The ad, which includes a photo of a model dressed as a firefighter and the headline “I Was There” referring to 9/11, was created in connection with a generous charitable donation for insertion in a commemorative booklet produced for a Police and Firefighters Gala that took place on March 23, 2011. The law firm regrets that the ad might have caused any confusion for those who read it, notwithstanding the disclaimer at the bottom of the ad stating clearly that the image portrayed a model posing as a potential Zadroga claimant.

“This firm has worked for over seven long years to represent our brave first responders against the City of New York and its contractors and other defendants for injuries they suffered while working at the World Trade Center site following 9/11,” said Senior Partner Marc Jay Bern, “we did this at great risk to the firm and its principals when few, if any other firms would take on these claims, because we knew it was the right thing to do.”  Bern continued: “we are still engaged in this long battle for the rights of the first responders and want to be sure that those men and women who did not have the opportunity to make a claim in the first Victim’s Compensation Fund or the federal litigation will have an opportunity to file their claims under Zadroga.  We believe we are best positioned to help them given our experience in these matters.” According to Bern, that was the only intent behind the ad, i.e., to be sure that potential Zadroga claimants knew they could contact the firm for representation on their Zadroga claims. 

Asked about the Post’s allegations, Bern responded: “we hired a top-flight advertising agency and that agency legally obtained the photograph through an agency holding the proper documentation and his signed release for use of the image.”  The release signed states, in relevant part:  “I hereby give … my permission to license the images and to use the Images in any Media for any purpose (except pornographic or defamatory), which may include, among others, advertising, promotion, marketing and packaging for any product or service.  I agree that the images may be combined with other images, text and graphics, and cropped, altered or modified. … I acknowledge and agree that I have no further right to additional Consideration or accounting and that I will make no further claim for any reason to Photographer/Filmmaker and/or Assigns.”

The release plainly noted that the image might be altered when used, notwithstanding the Post’s claim that doing so was somehow improper. Bern said: “the law firm and the ad agency followed all appropriate ethical rules for attorney advertising and could not possibly have known that the model in the photo, who was clearly identified as a model on the face of the ad, was also a firefighter.  To the extent that this ad caused him, or any other World Trade Center first responder, to be upset, we certainly regret that.”  Bern confirmed a statement released by the ad agency that the agency took full responsibility for the ad and its production and that the agency has resigned the account “out of respect for all parties involved.” 

Bern also noted that notwithstanding its article attacking the ad and the law firm, the New York Post accepted his firm’s advertising dollars to run the ad in many of their print editions.             

                                                        

©2008 Napoli Bern LLP, All Rights Reserved, Reproduced with Permission
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