Norfolk Southern Derailment Case Settlement Announced. An update for our clients:
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‍We have some exciting news to share with you today. Earlier today, the parties announced that the case against Norfolk Southern Railroad has been settled for $600 million. This is very good news both in the amount of the settlement and also for the speed in which it was reached – just 14 months after the tragedy. Federal Judge Betina Pearson deserves credit for encouraging the parties to work together to reach an accord. Judge Pearson has also expressed that she hopes Plaintiffs will receive settlement awards in 2024.To read the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee settlement announcement, you can click here. 

‍To help you understand the in and outs of the settlement, please plan on attending our next in person Town Hall meeting with Mikal Watts on Monday, April 15. We will announce the location and times soon, watch for another email with additional event details. If you are unable to attend in person, we will also be live streaming the event via our Facebook page, be sure to follow us for updates!

‍We know you will have lots of questions – probably the most common of which is “How much can my family expect to recover?” At this point, it is too early for us to answer that specific question. But, we do know that there will be categories of injuries and that clients will be compensated based on which categories each falls into and what evidence we have to support each category. Mikal will share the details on this aspect of the settlement along with many others during our April 15 Town Hall meeting. 

We understand how challenging the last 14 months have been for not only the community of East Palestine but all of the towns and hamlets within close proximity to the derailment site. We hope that today’s announcement will help bring some satisfaction in knowing that when we band together, we can achieve good things.

We look forward to seeing you next week at the Town Hall.

Sincerely,
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The East Palestine Justice Team