EAST PALESTINE, OHIO — In East Palestine, the community is still dealing with the aftereffects of a train derailment there more than a year ago. 

A class action lawsuit has been settled on behalf of residents, but some lingering confusion remains about that settlement. 

“My group at the firm practices in mass catastrophe litigation,” said Adam Gomez, an attorney with Grant & Eisenhofer who worked on the East Palestine Class action settlement. 

He said he’s heard criticism from the community that the $600-million settlement reached with Norfolk Southern is too low. 

“We are subject to certain requirements for proof, especially on damages when you bring a civil lawsuit and when you bring a civil lawsuit in federal court, where this is,” said Gomez.

He said the appeals process could have taken years if the class action had not settled. 

“What that results in is seven, eight, nine, 10 plus years of litigation. Typically, cases don’t get stronger over time, they get weaker,” said Gomez.

Gomez has also heard criticism surrounding why the settlement was reached before the NTSB hearings were finished. 

“For the last year, we have been investigating and taking discovery on all of the information that came out during the NTSB hearing. Nothing that was reported by the NTSB in terms of its factual findings was new to us. In fact, we had developed a lot of that information,” said Gomez. 

People who have already taken money from Norfolk Southern for some damages will be getting less from the settlement than if they had not taken that money. 

“Those folks that we’ve heard from think it’s unfair that they are getting an offset for that, but there’s also a large number, even a majority of people who didn’t take money from Norfolk Southern but endured those same kinds of expenses,” said Gomez. 

Anyone who lives within 20 miles of the derailment who did not opt out of the class action settlement is considered a part of the class. Class action members have until Aug. 22 to file a claim.