A new settlement has been reached among the parties in the thousands of cases alleging that people who responded to the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks and helped to clean up the debris sustained respiratory and other illnesses. Lawyers representing New York City and thousands of ground zero workers appeared before Southern District of New York Judge Alvin Hellerstein today to propose an increased settlement offer of $712.5 million that also sets a cap on legal fees.

The sides were forced back to the table in March after Hellerstein rejected a proposal that would have settled almost 10,000 cases. The original proposal called for $657 million to be paid to the plaintiffs from the World Trade Center Captive Insurance Co., which was funded with a $1 billion grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency as a way to help the city and its contractors purchase insurance for World Trade Center claims.