Case Results

UFA General Counsel and leading personal injury firm Sullivan Papain Block McGrath Coffinas & Cannavo, P.C. commend the passage of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act. The Act extends the World Trade Center Health Program to the year 2090 with $3.5 billion in additional funding, which guarantees health care for first responders with chronic illnesses and extends the September 11^th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) 5 years to Dec. 17, 2020, with $4.6 billion in additional funding.

Since January 2013, when the first VCF awards were issued under the Zadroga Act, through March 31, 2017:

• SPBMC obtained 1,166 awards totaling $560 Million.
• SPBMC achieved the highest award to date –$4.133 Million – for a client whose cancer was linked to his exposure to toxins at the WTC Disaster Site.
• SPBMC’s average award was 280% greater than the average of all other VCF awards.

SPBMC’s success does not stop there. The firm has also been very successful in obtaining supplemental awards for its clients who, after receiving an award, were diagnosed with a new 9/11 illness or were subsequently found to be disabled by reason of their 9/11 illness.

Following the conclusion of the VCF litigation, firefighters sickened by exposures at the World Trade Center continued to seek our help. We filed the first lawsuits against the City of New York and its contractors for their failure to provide respirators to rescue and recovery workers. Appointed co-liaison counsel, our firm assumed a leading role in a long, difficult fight to secure compensation for all of these brave individuals.

Our firm offered free legal services to the families of the firefighters killed, and those injured, at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. We represented 65 families of firefighters/fire officers who lost their lives and 297 firefighters who were injured and applied to the Victim Compensation Fund. While many lawyers requested fees to perform similar services, we always believed that it was appropriate for our firm to perform these services on a pro-bono basis. After two years of working on these claims, we were able to recover $260 million for our clients.

On March 13, 2017, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (VCF) issued its Fifth Annual Status Report and its findings confirm the great success Sullivan Papain Block McGrath Coffinas & Cannavo, P.C. (SPBMC) has achieved in maximizing awards for its clients.