Anti-Terrorism

Published on: June 23, 2024

Collecting Money for Relatives of Victims of Terror Attacks

This firm wants to take the time to answer your questions where your relative was injured by terrorism.The question we get most is “Can you collect money for me if my relative was injured in a terrorist attack?”

The answer is yes if:

1.Your relative was injured in a terrorist attack where a person was killed other than the terrorist.

2. A claim is being made by your relative for damages he suffered in the terrorist attack.

3.You are an immediate family member of the relative. This would include a spouse, children, brothers and sisters, and parents of the injured victim.

4.You must have suffered an immediate emotional impact as a result of your relative being injured and be able to express how the impact has lasted.

5.Examples of emotional impact: When my brother returned from this attack, I observed him to be isolated and very jumpy anytime there was a loud noise. I would call him two or three times a week and try to get him to become more integrated into his family life. I would go visit him weekly. I offered to meet him and take him out to breakfast or to see his child play softball, but he became more and more isolated. This made me feel like a failure at helping him. He seemed to pull back and isolate more. Before the attack my family and his family were very close and we would do lots of things together. After the attack I worked for 6 months to help him integrate but instead he would isolate. I was a failure and eventually had to accept that I had lost my brother. So I am sad, disappointed and fearful things will never change. It is continuing and his loss is permanent as it has been 3 years now.

6.Another example: When I was a child I understood that my father went to fight with the USA forces in the war effort. We had to accept he was earning money he sent home to support my mother and sister. Before he left he used to be home every day. He would teach me to read, help with my homework and help my mom around the house. He would fix lots of things in the house. I would have loved for him to see me grow up and be there to answer all my questions and guide me. Instead he died in the war effort when a bomb went off.

7.I am not an American can I still make a claim? Yes you can. That does not matter.

8.How will you collect damages for me? After you retain us, the firm will file a lawsuit for damages suffered by the direct victim and immediate family member.

9. Where is the venue for the case? The lawsuit will be filed in Federal court in Washington DC. Capture-300x280

10.How long will my case take? At least two years to get a damage award.

11.When will I collect my award? After the award is given in Federal Court and money is paid into the government funds which will be available through the www.usvsst.com, you will receive some of your award pro-rata with other individuals who have claims pending for payment from the government but only when they have funds. There are claimants ahead of you so you must be patient.

12.Are there other sources where I might recover money for my suffering? Yes this firm can look for money in banks that have funds that directly supported terrorists that caused the attack or made the bombs that injured your relative.

13.How is the law firm paid for collecting my damages? The law firm takes as its fee 25% of the usvsst.com money recovered. Since the usvsst fund has not been able to pay the full amount of damage awards in the past, the firm will take a 30% fee when it collects non-usvsst funds.

14.Can you give me an example? Yes, say your damage award given by the court is $3,000,000 and the usvsst funds pay you $1,000,000. You will receive $750,000 after our 25% fee.

15.Under the example you still have $2,000,000 you have not collected because there are no available usvsst funds. When this firm collects the remaining $2,000,000 from non usvsst funds, for instance by freezing a bank account and having a court award you your share of those bank funds, you will collect $1,400,000 after our 30% fee. You will have deducted from your money, your prorata costs of collection. This means the costs of collection are shared by the plaintiffs and each party pays their pro rata share. For example, the costs of depositions, filing, hiring experts was $20,000 and there were 20 plaintiffs, each plaintiff has deducted $1,000 in costs from their funds.

16.What are some collection costs? They are filing fees, expert fees, process of service of the lawsuit, court reporter charges. These costs will be apportioned over all the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Continue reading →

Published on: June 5, 2024

TERRORISM CLAIMS WITH DATES OF DEADLY ATTACKS

By Jo Ann Hoffman & Associates, P.A.

My last blog post explained that in order to bring a claim under the US VSST act there must have been a death that occurred in the attack. The case requiring this was Borochov. That finding was affirmed on appeal. This means that the only way of changing this result is to have the legislature change the language of the statute. Work is being done to achieve that result.

Bringing a claim also requires proof that Iran was behind the attack.

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For Instance in the attack on February 15, 2021 at the Erbil airbase we know that a DBA contractor died so this meets the requirement of an extra judicial death in the attack as required by Borochov case.

Continue reading →

Published on: April 10, 2024

Obtaining money damages for a terrorist attack when a death is involved

By Jo Ann Hoffman & Associates, P.A.

When one person dies in a rocket attack, everyone injured in that rocket attack can make a claim for damages under the anti-terrorism law set forth at www.usvsst.com. The US Department of Justice has a website that explains the rights of US victims of state sponsored terrorism. US victims include contractors working under a contract which their employer has with the US Government. PHOTO-2024-04-11-11-01-41-225x300 These rights can be found at www.usvsst.com. It provides compensation to individuals or the personal representative of a deceased individual who holds a final judgment issued by the United States District Court, awarding the individual compensatory damages. The judgment must arise from active international terrorism for which a foreign state sponsor of terrorism was found not immune from the jurisdiction of US courts under the foreign sovereign immunities act (FSIA) and the individual must submit the applications found at the website, not later than 90 days after the date of obtaining the final judgment from the District Court.

Presently the funding through this website has paid about 25% of the awarded damages to contractors since 2016 since the fund does not have money every year to make disbursements. Attorneys’ fees are

IMG_5463-300x254 contingent on obtaining these benefits and has been limited to 25% of the benefits paid on usvsst disbursements. Fees can be higher where a law firm has to find and recover money from other third parties. A restrictive view of the ability of contractors to make a claim under this Act was recently taken by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decided March 8, 2024. The case was Borochov vs. Islamic Republic of Iran and Syrian Arab Republic case number 22–7058.

This law firm is committed to fighting terrorism and pursuing money damages for the contractors who suffered injuries where a fellow contractor paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Let us file a claim for you. For those of you that have retained us on the terrorism claim we will shortly contact you with a family member intake form because your family members who suffered emotional and psychological damages from your injuries are entitled to make a claim for compensatory damages. Family members include siblings, spouse, children, parents and each can get their own award if the contractor’s injuries had an emotional and psychological impact on that family member.

Continue reading →