NEW YORK—WTC Captive Insurance Co. has reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with more than 10,000 plaintiffs claiming injuries related to events following the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack.

“The settlement will cost the federal-taxpayer funded WTC Captive $575 million at 95% plaintiff participation, or up to $657 million under certain conditions, leaving residual funds to insure and defend the city (of New York) and its contractors against any new claims,” the captive said in a Thursday statement.

“There could be additional sums depending upon the level of plaintiff participation and the extent of new lawsuits filed in the future. If there are few lawsuits filed in the next five years, there may be more money for current plaintiffs,” said the WTC Captive, for which Congress provided $1 billion in funding to reimburse workers injured during the cleanup in and around the World Trade Center.

The captive came under fire in 2006 when lawmakers accused it of mishandling its $1 billion in Federal Emergency Management Agency funding.

The legislators expressed concerns that the captive was fighting liability claims for city and contract workers who aided in the cleanup of the World Trade Center site after the 2001 terrorist attacks. The captive has also faced litigation from individual claimants seeking compensation for their injuries.

WTC Captive maintained that the mandate under which it was created required the entity to defend its insureds against potentially improper claims.

Each plaintiff will have to submit proof that he or she was present and participated in the rescue, recovery and debris removal operations, specific medical documentation and a physician's diagnosis confirming their claimed illness or injury. Plaintiffs must submit the information under oath and will be subject to audit. Attorneys for the plaintiffs and WTC Captive will choose an independent third-party expert to review each claim and medical documentation to protect against mistakes or fraud, the captive said.

In addition to providing compensation for proven injuries, ranging from thousands of dollars to more than $1 million, “this settlement also funds a special insurance policy to provide additional compensation to any plaintiff contracting certain kinds of cancer in the future,” the captive said.

“Plaintiffs will have 90 days to review the settlement and ‘opt in,' by agreeing to the terms of the agreement, which includes a release of any future claims against the city and its contractors involved in the 9/11 rescue, recovery and debris removal operations,” WTC Captive said in the statement. “The agreement with plaintiffs' attorneys requires that 95% of the plaintiffs bringing claims against the city and its contractors, covered by WTC Captive, ‘opt in' or agree to the settlement.”