Fw: Law firm defends breast implants deal

[Guest guest]

----- Original Message -----

From: " Kathi " <pureheart@...>

Sent: Thursday, September 26, 2002 8:29 PM

Subject: Law firm defends breast implants deal

> Interesting facts in this story:

> 1. Austrian and NZ women were paid 60 cents on the dollar

> 2. 42 categories of payout for the New Zealand and the Australian

> claimants

> (Is there any way we can find out what these categories are?)

> 3. Compensation for the four other New Zealanders ranged from A$2000 to

> A$20,000.

> The largest payout among the total group was A$120,000.

>

> Friday September 27, 2002

>

>

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=2897059 & thesection=news & t

hesubsection=general

>

> Law firm defends breast implants deal

>

> 26.09.2002

>

> The Melbourne law firm representing more than 3000 women, including five

> New Zealanders, who won compensation for faulty breast implants has

> defended the payments

> offered.

>

> Slater and Gordon says the settlement with the US firm Dow Corning after

> a lengthy battle was a good result in the circumstances.

>

> Timaru woman Kathy was among the New Zealanders who joined

> Australian counterparts in the Slater and Gordon action. The five had

> had their operations done in

> Australia.

>

> While thousands of other women, including 1200 other New Zealanders, are

> still pursuing compensation through the US court system, with no end in

> sight, Slater and Gordon's

> clients settled with Dow Corning last year.

>

> The claimants were offered 60 per cent of what US women got in a package

> worth A$38 million ($44.49 million), with individual payouts determined

> case by case.

>

> Mrs says she has been told she will get just A$565 ($662).

>

> Slater and Gordon spokesman said there were 42 categories

> of payout and they were the same for the New Zealand and the Australian

> claimants.

>

> Mrs was in the lowest category. In her case, her implants were

> made not by Dow Corning but by another company with Dow Corning

> material.

>

> While women in that category could take action against the makers of the

> implants, some of those businesses had folded. " The problem with the

> whole Dow Corning issue is that

> these women are not getting what they should get anyway, " Mr

> said. " It's a bankrupt firm and it's an achievement we're very proud of

> that we've managed to get money

> for the women at today's values. "

>

> Compensation for the four other New Zealanders ranged from A$2000 to

> A$20,000. The largest payout among the total group was A$120,000.

>

> Mrs said she just " cried and cried " when she received the Slater

> and Gordon letter telling her how much she would receive.

>

> " I was hoping that it would be more considering what we had to go

> through, " she told the Holmes television show.

>

> She said she received her faulty breast implants in 1992 not " to make my

> boobs bigger or anything like that " but after a double mastectomy for

> breast cancer.

>

>