Just 11 days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Congress enacted a statute unprecedented in American history.
Added at the last moment to legislation designed to protect the domestic airline industry from lawsuits, the federal September 11th Victim Compensation Fund of 2001 offered the victims of the attacks at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on the airplanes a voluntary choice—the right to sue the airlines, the World Trade Center and other alleged domestic tortfeasors in federal court in Manhattan or to accept generous compensation from a no-fault administrative fund totally paid for by the tax-payers.
