Comments on: New Orleans: “Those left out of class action lead poisoning lawsuit speak up”

By: Bumper

Bumper — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 18:40:37 +0000

According to some reports (not verified) that many of the new victims were not even born prior to the inclusive dates of the lawsuit. In watching the video I was reminded of when a city bus with four people on board is involved in an accident and 15 passenger lawsuits are filed for injuries from the accident. Reducing the complaint to “What, there was free money and I didn’t get any? The outrage!”

I believe that the original suit was filed in the late 1990s which would have given the plaintiff’s five or six years to get the records prior to Katrina.

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 18:10:10 +0000

The other fishy thing is that settlement only applies to people with a Pre-1993 diagnosis. What’s the point of opening it up to people who lived in housing from 1993 to 2001 other than to extinguish their claims?

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 18:05:25 +0000

I don’t know about that, Ted. The plaintiff’s lawyer says New Orleans keeps a municipal registry of lead poisoning case reports, and a diagnosis of poisoning would also generate records in clinic or medical-office files that a family could ask for even if it did not hold on to the paperwork. (Admittedly, Katrina might have posed unique challenges to the otherwise presumed survival of most contemporary American medical-office records.)

By: Ted

Ted — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 17:53:57 +0000

What low-income person saves 20-year-old medical records? Wouldn’t surprise me if actual payout is a tiny fraction of what the lawyers will be asking for.