Administrator: Nightclub shooting fund up to $23 million

(AP) — The administrator of a $23 million fund of donations for survivors and family members of the shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando that left 49 patrons dead warned Thursday that squabbling over estate questions could be the biggest obstacle to distributing the money.

Ken Feinberg told about 200 family members and survivors at the first of two town hall meetings that family members, domestic partners and spouses of patrons who died need to agree on who will represent a victim's estate, and he encouraged them to use probate court in Orlando to make that designation.

Feinberg, who has represented similar funds for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing, acknowledged that such a decision may be complicated by same-sex domestic partners having competing interests with family members of victims.

Some survivors and family members said they were worried that they would have to reimburse a state fund that provides crime victims money for lost wages, medical bills and funeral expenses.

Under a proposal yet to be finalized, there will be four classes for distributing the funds: families of deceased victims; people hospitalized for more than one night; people injured but not needing overnight hospitalization; and patrons who were in the club when the shooting started but were not hurt.

Joe Saunders, a representative from the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group, told Feinberg he worried some patrons who escaped may not have talked to law enforcement.