There was a four step formula for determining the amount for each award. First, we computed economic loss: the amount of lost income, looking forward, as a result of the death or serious physical injury. Second, we computed non-economic loss: the pain and suffering of the victim, the emotional distress visited on the survivors. Third, we deducted collateral sources of income from this gross number, such as life insurance or other death benefits. Finally, Congress delegated to me broad discretion to adjust the ultimate awards to take into account any "exceptional circumstances." Ultimately, I was asked to play Solomon, to be both judge and jury, in calculating appropriate compensation in each individual case.

But how do you presume to put a dollar value on a life that ends prematurely? How do you calculate a victim's pain and a survivor's emotional distress? It is a near impossible task.

Try to imagine what it was like. When I visited victims groups, one widow would raise her hand and say: "Mr. Feinberg, my husband died on the 103rd floor of the World Trade Center. He telephoned me on his cell phone to say good-bye. I'm entitled to more pain and suffering and emotional distress than the husband on a lower floor who was killed instantly when the plane hit the building." Then she'd sit down.

Then another woman would stand up and say: "How dare you! My husband died instantly but I suffered just as much emotional distress as you did. I resent your comments. Mr. Feinberg, do not consider my pain and suffering any less than other widows."

A third woman would stand up and say: "I was married for 35 years to my husband. We were inseparable. My loss is much greater than the woman who was only married for six months to her husband." She'd sit down.

Up stands that woman: "How dare you! I loved my husband just as much as you loved yours, even if we were only married six months. How dare you denigrate my marriage."

I had never witnessed the level of emotion and pain that I saw on a daily basis in meeting with the victims of 9/11. How could I calculate awards? What distinctions could I recognize among different family members? How could I do "justice?" I could not play Solomon. I would listen to their grief. I would hear what they had to say. But I would not calculate awards by weighing their suffering. Nor would I pay them for it. There had to be a better way and I was determined to find it.