Uncharitable View of Marathon Survivors’ Attorneys Is Unfair

In David Abel’s article about a group of Boston Marathon bombing survivors who suffered hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, and other so-called invisible injuries (“Bombing survivors seek more aid,” Metro, June 21), a One Fund spokeswoman blamed their volunteer attorneys and others at a Massachusetts Bar Association press event for improperly capitalizing on the outpouring of support toward victims. Such an assertion is unworthy of the One Fund.

The spokeswoman’s tactics serve no purpose but to distract from the real issue, which is that the One Fund plans once again to exclude hearing-loss and brain-injury victims, who received a maximum of $8,000 under the previous distribution, from receiving any meaningful award during the upcoming second distribution of charitable funds.

The public should rightly question the overall administration and equity of this publicly created charitable fund, given this caustic rhetoric regarding volunteer attorneys who, since the unspeakable tragedy, have provided any survivor of the bombing with free assistance for any legal needs they may have.

Can the One Fund provide no better response than trying vilify the people who are trying to assist the very victims who the fund is meant to help?

Douglas K. Sheff
President, Massachusetts Bar Association

Paul White
Chairman, Massachusetts Bar Association Marathon Bombing Victim Assistance Program