to withdraw from the class and pursue their individual cases in federal court or through the USDA administrative process. This settlement was approved on April 14, 1999, by Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Payouts Originally, claimants were to have filed within 180 days of the consent decree. Late claims were accepted for an additional year afterwards, if claimants could show extraordinary circumstances that prevented them from filing on time. Far beyond the anticipated 2,000 affected farmers, 22,505 "Track A" applications were heard and decided upon, of which 13,348 (59%) were approved. US$995 million had been disbursed or credited to the "Track A" applicants , including US$760 million disbursed as US$50,000 cash awards. Fewer than 200 farmers opted for the "Track B" process. The Pigford settlement is reportedly the largest federal settlement for civil rights violations to date. Beyond those applications that were heard and decided upon, about 70,000 petitions were filed late and were not allowed to proceed. Some have argued that the notice program was defective, and others blamed the farmers' attorneys for "the inadequate notice and overall mismanagement of the settlement agreement". A provision in the 2008 farm bill essentially allowed a re-hearing in civil court for any claimant whose claim had been denied without a decision that had been based on its merits. The largest compensation , from the first part of the Pigford case, was the $13 million paid to the members of the defunct collective farm New Communities of Southwest Georgia in 2009; their attorney said that the value of the land of their former 6,000-acre farm was probably worth $9 million. The case was decided during the administration of President Bill Clinton administration, but the payouts were made during the George W. Bush administration. The Bush administration did not share the views of Clinton or USDA Secretary Dan Glickman. It protected the government's financial interests above recovery by farmers and worked aggressively against awarding Track A claims. Under Bush, 69% of the 22,721 eligible claims were denied. Additionally, the 73,800 farmers who filed claims past the deadline were denied review. A contributing factor to the late claims was that were not enough attorneys ready to take the thousands of Track B claims, leading to errors, missed deadlines, incorrect filings, and other problems. The news media criticized the lawyers representing the black farmers, saying that they