9/11 Wrongful Death Lawsuit to go to Trial in 2010

April 12, 2010, will be the trial date of a wrongful-death lawsuit that arose after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001.

Federal judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said that he wanted this kind of case to be the first to go to trial in the lawsuits relating to September 11.

"I think in many respects when we think of 9/11, we think more of the people in the airplanes than anybody else," Hellerstein said.
The judge is also reportedly handling the respiratory injury claims by Ground Zero workers.

There are two still-pending lawsuits that have been filed on behalf of the victims who died on American Airlines Flight 11, which was the first to strike the WTC, as well as another involving a passenger on United Airlines Flight 175, which hit the south tower of the building.

More than 90 lawsuits filed by victims and their survivors have either been settled or resolved through a special compensations fund, the Associated Press reports.

However some chose not to settle, a decision Hellerstein told the New York Times he is respecting.

"They didn't have to settle if they didn't want to," the judge said. "They want to have a trial. I'm here to give it to them."