"It's just that people have not had enough time," says Jami Wallace, president of the Unity Council for the East Palestine Train Derailment.

Many people in and around East Palestine have been considering whether to join a $600 million class action lawsuit that Norfolk Southern agreed to.
They only have a couple more days to decide, but Wallace is working to change that.

"We have to do it kind of blindly. At this point we don't even know what kind of factors they're going to consider in the amount of money. We don't know how many people have joined the class," Wallace said. 

She and her neighbors are emailing Federal Judge Benita Pearson, asking her to move that deadline to September 1.
They're also writing letters for class members to object.

In addition to gathering as much information as possible, Wallace has gathered letters of support from various doctors.
She sees the settlement favoring the lawyers.

"We don't even have health insurance in this settlement. You take my household of four, divide that by $70,000, that's $17,000 each."

There's also information we know now that we didn't know when NS and the DOJ announced the settlement.
We've learned the plume from the vent and burn reached 16 states, and the NTSB just days ago called the procedure ill-advised.
For Wallace and many others, the phrase "the luxury of time" has taken on a whole new meaning.

"...I feel like it would be a bigger detriment to the people that need more time, to push it back two months, than it would be for the people who want to get their money quicker," she said.