EAST PALESTINE, Ohio — Despite reiterating that the $600 million settlement with Norfolk Southern is “fair, reasonable and adequate for members of the community,” attorneys who brokered the pending agreement faced frustration and a flurry of questions from residents during an informational town hall to discuss the details at the East Palestine High School auditorium on Tuesday.

Residents shouted out at lead counsel Seth Katz, Jane Conroy and T. Michael Morgan, expressing frustration with the process and saying the amounts residents stand to receive from the settlement are not enough.

The town hall was meant to explain the terms of the settlement, which is awaiting preliminary approval from the Ohio Northern District Court.

Plaintiff attorneys announced on April 9 that a principal agreement had been reached with the railroad to remedy damages caused by last year’s train derailment and intentional vent-and-burn of chemicals. Last week, the lawyers filed a motion, asking Ohio Northern District Court to grant approval of that deal.

Residents questioned the terms of the agreement, including having to release Norfolk Southern of all liability without knowing how much of the settlement they are entitled to.

“How do you expect us to accept an offer when we don’t know what the offer is?” a resident asked. “Can we say yes or no after we know? Why can’t we know and then decide?”

In order to know what they will receive in the settlement, a resident must fill out a claim award. Awards from the settlement, open to households within the first 20 miles of the derailment, will be based on an allocation formula that considers criteria including geographic proximity, household size, number of children in the household, relocation mandates, and length of displacement. Awards will be determined only after all forms have been processed.

Attached to last week’s motion to approve the settlement was a copy of that claim form as well as the full agreement. The form disclosed how much a class member will likely get in property damages from the settlement — 0-2 miles from derailment ($70,000), 2-4 miles ($45,000), 4-7 miles ( $30,000), 7-10 miles ( $15,000), 10-15 miles (approximately $500) and 15-20 miles ($250). Examples were also given for “potential, average payment amounts based on proximity to East Palestine for individuals that submit a claim for personal injury payment (residents within 10 miles that show a potential link between health impacts and the derailment) were $10,000 or lower. The form does state the possibility of a larger payout for “extraordinary claims” for both property and personal injury damages, meaning some awards may be higher.

Residents said that the $70,000 listed on the claims form doesn’t “come close” to making the community “whole again.” They said it is not enough to relocate those who want to leave the village or address possible contamination of private drinking wells. They also recited a long list of health symptoms they attributed to the derailment and the financial burdens that come with them.

Another point of contention was the pending legal fees that will significantly reduce the funds to be distributed to the community members.

“You keep saying $600 million, but it’s not $600 million after the lawyers take their cut,” one resident shouted.

The attorneys acknowledged the fees will be taken out of the settlement but insisted that the amount taken is out of their hands.

“You are exactly right. The lawyers get paid, and the court decides what the lawyers get paid, not us,” Conroy said.

Another resident asked about the potential of the attorneys receiving upwards of $180 million. All three seemed to dismiss that potential.

“We are going to ask for a fee. There is no doubt about that. What that fee is or what the judge will allow us, we don’t know because we are at a stage called preliminary approval so the judge hasn’t even told us if she is going to say grace over the settlement,” Morgan said. “We are going to petition for a fee, of course. That is coming. I don’t think it’s $180 million. I don’t know what it will be.”

Katz explained that is the “way class action works” and in Ohio and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals “it’s usually a percentage of the recovery.” Katz said that percentage is typically a third or 35% but “it’s not going to be at that level.”

The $180 million dollars was not an arbitrary number. The preliminary agreement that was filed states that “class counsel agrees to “seek no more than 27% of the total monetary recovery” and “costs and expenses up to 3% of the fund.” If Pearson agrees to the high end of that request, legal fees would total $180 million — $162 million in legal fees and $18 million in other expenses.

Ultimately, Katz said it was up to each resident to decide whether opting in to the settlement would be in their best interest, and also said he was not there to persuade anybody to participate. However, he did ask residents to consider the challenges of suing Norfolk Southern individually — specifically the length of time it would take to reach a resolution.

“We are all in favor of the settlement. We think it gets fair compensation to the community. It gets it now. It’s not through litigation and trust me, Norfolk Southern would take this up and down to the Sixth Circuit Court, no matter what the outcome was,” he said. “We think it’s a very strong case, but no case is without risk and the value of getting compensation to the community now is instead of multiple appeals and potentially a decade of litigation, and that has value.”