Two law firms have dropped a dispute about expenses in long-running litigation over respiratory diseases and other injuries suffered as a result of rescue and debris-removal operations following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack in New York.

The dispute was over so-called "common benefit costs," which would have reduced the amount of lawyers fees in the case.

A revised settlement was unveiled in the case in June, which would pay thousands of city workers and others who suffered injuries while working at Ground Zero, up to $712.5 million. Workers have until Sept. 8 to decide whether to accept the deal.

According to a court filing Wednesday, plaintiffs firms Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo PC and Worby Groner Edelman & Napoli Bern LLP have agreed to waive their right to recover common benefit costs from each other or any plaintiff in the litigation.

Napoli Bern, which represents more than 9,000 plaintiffs in the litigation, also agreed to not charge its clients or other plaintiffs for lobbying expenses, public relations consultants and attorney consultants, according to the filing.

"Everybody is looking forward to the end of this case," said Marc J. Bern of Napoli Bern. "We didn't think it was important at this point any longer to continue to have this dispute. We want the men and women--the heroes of 9/11--to get compensated as quickly as possible."

(This story and related background material will be available on The Wall Street Journal Web site, WSJ.com.)

The World Trade Center case is being handled as a mass tort case, in which thousands of individual cases are consolidated for pretrial motions, rather than as a class-action.

Last week, Sullivan Papain, which represents 689 plaintiffs, challenged about $407,925 of more than $1.756 million in common benefit costs submitted by Napoli Bern. That included more than $220,000 in "expert costs" that Sullivan Papain claimed were improperly labeled legal fees.

Napoli Bern then challenged about $222,063 in common benefit expenses submitted by Sullivan Papain.

-By Chad Bray, The Wall Street Journal; 212-227-2017; chad.bray@wsj.com

Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front page of today's most important business and market news, analysis and commentary: http://www.djnewsplus.com/nae/al?rnd=osCpnGHqDrYg4OGMQohjpA%3D%3D. You can use this link on the day this article is published and the following day.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  09-01-10 1457ET
  Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.