Report: Many East Palestine residents still haven't been paid in derailment settlement

The big picture: Norfolk Southern agreed to a $600 million class-action settlement in 2024.

Stunning stats (from the Lever's investigation):

• The high-profile attorneys have already taken a $180 million cut.
• The settlement administrator reportedly misallocated more than $17 million, leaving less in the pot to distribute to residents.
• The administrator has also collected more than $9.5 million in fees from the fund.
• Residents were steered toward a $129 million personal injury pool that required signing away future claims, including for health issues that could emerge later.

💭 Sam's thought bubble: It's a deeply reported story that illustrates the thorny postscripts to environmental disasters, and how victims get victimized all over again.

• Erin Brockovich makes an appearance, and does not exactly cover herself in glory as a celebrity consultant for "one player among the peripheral cottage industries" that crop up around lucrative class-action lawsuits.

Go deeper: The derailment that never ended...