The major themes that I’ve been trying to express in this blog are twofold. One, obviously Christine LaSala has managed to have the state of New York put her in charge of the $1 Billion that Congress set aside for the WTC rescue workers and during the past 4 years she has managed to make $1 million herself, spend nearly $100 million fighting the claims of those harmed during the 9/11 cleanup and yet only pay $45,000 out of that $1 Billion to just one claimant. The other significant, and in some ways more important, point is that this story has hardly been reported in the mainstream media, brushed off by Mayor Bloomberg, only recently raising the interest of the Judiciary Committee and virtually unknown to Americans who would be horrified if they knew their tax dollars were paying attorneys hired by Christine LaSala to fight the cases of those injured in the Ground Zero clean up. Thankfully the tide has begun to turn.

As I noted last week, the law firm of Napoli & Bern is representing the WTC rescue workers as the Judiciary Committee in Congress investigates Christine LaSala and the WTC Insurance Fund. Napoli & Bern and other attorneys represent nearly 9,000 first responders and cleanup workers who breathed toxic fumes in the days and weeks after 9/11 and have come down with respiratory problems ranging from emphysema to cancer who are awaiting their share of the $1 Billion being controlled by Christine LaSala. Paul J. Napoli of Napoli & Bern has been instrumental in getting this issue in front of the Judiciary Committee and on April 1 he is transporting many of the WTC rescue workers down to Washington to draw attention to the case and hopefully get the mainstream media more involved in investigating Christine LaSala and the WTC Insurance Fund than they’ve been so far.

Napoli first made a name for himself as an attorney representing average Americans when he won a class action lawsuit against the manufacturers of fen-phen, the controversial diet drug that later caused heart problems in some patients. Napoli, 40, was a fast riser in the legal community as he won the fen-phen case only 5 years out of law school. Despite being an advocate for both patients misled by the medical community about the dangers of fen-phen and WTC rescue workers sick and dying after being exposed to toxic fumes, Napoli has been the focus of some criticism by parties that are looking to deflect attention from the case against the state of New York and against Christine LaSala and the WTC Insurance Fund. Opponents questioned some of the echocardiograms that were the centerpiece of the fen-phen cases; however in 1997 the FDA did request withdrawal of the drug. As victims’ rights advocate, Napoli was proven correct in the fen-phen case and won large settlements for his plaintiffs. By working tirelessly for the WTC rescue workers he has already spent $10 million on the case before even appearing before Congress, let alone in a courtroom.