Deadline runs out for 9/11 fund

By Jane Standley
BBC New York correspondent

Nearly 3,000 people died in the 11 September attacks

The deadline expired on Monday for victims of the 11 September attacks to claim compensation from a special US Government fund.

The fund was created by Congress just weeks after the 2001 attacks.

It offers compensation to the families of those killed and injured - as long as they renounce all rights to sue the airlines used in the attacks.

In the past few weeks as many as 50-60 people a day have been lodging claims as the deadline to do so has loomed.

When it was first opened, the claim fund had few takers.

Lawsuits

Many family members of those killed said it was too early to make decisions involving money; others said they wanted to keep their options open and to see if it was going to prove feasible to sue the airlines instead.

Slowly, more and more of them - along with people who survived the attacks but were injured - have taken up the government's offer.

Of those eligible, 92% have now decided to claim compensation - a success for the fund, which for a long time had looked as if it was going to fail, as people chose to sue the airlines instead.

About 70 have decided to do this. They are either able to weather the financial hardship caused by the loss of a family member - as the process could take more than a decade to come to court - or want to use it to highlight what they say is negligence on the part of the US Government in the run up to the attacks.

So far, the compensation fund has resolved nearly 1,800 claims, with the average award to the family of someone who died being $1.8m.