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In their report, the Ombudsman states on page 7 of the report,
"According to the In re Black Farmers settlement, only people who made a
written request to be a part of the Pigford lawsuit can be part of the In re
Black Farmers class. That written request must have been made between
October 13, 1999 and June 18, 2008 to one of five entities: the Court, the
Pigford Monitor, the Pigford Facilitator, the Pigford Arbitrator, or the
Pigford Adjudicator. In addition, a person cannot be an In re Black
Farmers class member if he or she actually participated in Pigford."
This statement excludes people who wrote to their U.S.
Congressperson or Senator; who called the Pigford Facilitator to be
included in the case during the appropriate time period but did not followup
with a written request; and those who submitted their request to
community organizations and lawyers that were not directly a part of the
official five entities. Many farmers who feel they were discriminated
against by USDA tried to get in the case by one of these methods and were
unsuccessful. These claimants are disappointed that the Ombudsman was
not more forceful in advocating for their inclusion with the Judge or Class
Counsel.
Without additional information from Class Counsel, the Judge or the
Ombudsman, it is difficult to determine when the claims evaluation period
will end and the payment process will begin. Many claimants are
wondering when they might receive payment under the settlement.
The Network of Black Farmer Organizations has urged the parties,
particularly Class Counsel and the Judge, to be more open and transparent
about the settlement claim review process and report progress on a
publicly available website.
President Obama and Congress have made $1.25 billion dollars
available for all of the costs and expense in settling the case. At least a
billion dollars and perhaps a little more will be available to be distributed
to Black Farmers in the settlement.
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