Officials overseeing the claims administration process first said it would likely be completed by March 2023.
As that deadline passed, residents were told they might expect payments around last Christmas.
On Feb. 28, the “special master” helping the federal judge manage the case, attorney Deborah Greenspan, said initial claims review is targeted for completion around the end of June – with completion of requests for reconsideration and appeals to follow that.
Lawyers in line to collect before victims blame the state of Michigan for structuring the settlement so that claimants get paid last.
As defendant in the case, the state put up the bulk of the settlement fund — $600 million.
“We … would have preferred a streamlined process that allowed claims to be processed and paid out as they were completed and ensured everyone impacted by the crisis was paid and as quickly as possible,” said Ted Leopold, a Florida attorney who is co-lead class counsel in the Flint case.
However, “the state insisted on a grid in which the amount of every claim was dependent on every other claim and fairly high levels of documentation were required for each claim.”
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