Update: Settlement details offered in RI's Station fire case
6:07 PM Tue, Nov 24, 2009 | Permalink
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By Eric Tucker, Associated Press
The report reviews death and personal injury claims from the dozens of children affected by the Feb. 20, 2003 fire at The Station nightclub in West Warwick, which killed 100 people and injured more than 200 others. The report was prepared by William Poore, an outside lawyer hired to conduct the review. The report's recommendations must be approved by U.S. District Judge Ronald Lagueux, who appointed Poore. Forty-one children under 18, including a 6-year-old who was in utero at the time of the fire, are recommended to receive anywhere between $171,685.44 and $241,631.36, once attorneys' fees and other costs are deducted. But according to the figures revealed by Poore, no one who lost a loved one or suffered injuries in the Station fire stands to make as much money as some of the lawyers who filed lawsuits in their behalf. Lawyers who represent victims of the fire stand to make almost $59 million from the $176 million offered to settle the victims' personal-injury suits. Poore's report says that attorneys representing victims charged the standard one-third contingency fee in agreeing to take on the cases and, to date, have spent more than $1.2 million of their own money fronting the costs of the sprawling litigation. Poore called the fee arrangement fair given the amount of work that went into the cases. He also pronounced as equitable all of the proposed settlements earmarked for the minors who lost a parent in fire or who have a parent who was injured in the blaze. The child's age at the time of the fire is the main reason for the differing amounts, Poore said. "The younger you are, the more money you get because the longer you have to go without a parent" during your childhood, Poore said. The settlement money will be allocated according to a point basis that awards the largest shares to the people most seriously injured by the fire, with some survivors expected to receive multi-million dollar awards. It's not clear when any of the settlement money will be distributed. Children who lost a parent are given a base of 20 points, plus one point for each year they were below the age of 18 at the time of the 2003 fire. According to individual settlement sheets that Poore filed with the court -- with the plaintiffs' names blacked out -- one spouse with four children who was widowed from the fire stands to get $836,637.19 after attorney's fees and expenses are deducted. One badly burned victim will get $2.37 million; another will get almost $3.5 million, before liens, if any. But Poore said there are 63 minor children who will receive $3,000 or less from the settlement. The average gross amount adult children who lost a parent would receive is $155,700, according to the report. Children whose parents were injured but survived are also entitled to money, though the amount could be as low as $99.29 in the case of at least one adult child. More than 300 survivors and victims' relatives sued after the fire, which began when pyrotechnics used as a stage prop by the 1980s rock band Great White set ablaze cheap soundproof ing foam on the walls and ceiling. The lawsuits settled last year for $176 million, with defendants including foam manufacturers, brewer Anheuser Busch, Clear Channel Broadcasting, the town of West Warwick and the state itself each agreeing to contribute rather than head to trial. 
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Still trying to figure out how brewer Anheuser Busch is responsible for any of this. Just seems like they went far and for deep pockets when looking for someone, anyone, to blame.
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This should pump up business at Inskip Automall!
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The bottom-feeding attorneys sued everyone except the mail carriers who delivered mail to the Station Nightclub. I'm certainly happy that the survivors and families are getting what they will, but the attorneys have put themselves in a nice position also. What they failed to do is to make the two most responsible for the tragedy, the Derderian brothers, bankrupt and living in poverty for the rest of their lives. Those two should never see the outside of a prison as long as they live.
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The fire was on a Thursday night. Why were so many parents at the night club that night?
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As I've said all along, the real crime in this whole thing was that people actually went to a Great White concert.
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@George, Ever hear of a babysitter? I didn't realize it was a requirement that parents have to stay home with children on Thursday nights.
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