BP says many Gulf residents may not have right to sue

[Robbien]

Source: USA Today

BP and its partners in the blown-out Gulf well said Monday that thousands of fishermen, seafood processors, restaurants, hotel owners and others may not yet have the right to sue over the spill, Reuters reports.

In court papers, BP, Transocean Ltd and Halliburton Co said most alleged victims who have filed about 400 lawsuits must first take their claims to a $20 billion fund established by BP, according to the story. They said the independent fund, demanded by President Obama, would have 90 days to pay the claim or reject it.

The fund, run by the Obama administration's former executive pay czar Kenneth Feinberg, could presumably pay most of the stronger claims, such as those by resorts with oil-tainted beaches, and leave weaker ones to BP and its partners, Reuters reports. BP's incoming Chief Executive Bob Dudley has told analysts that the fund would be sufficient to meet claims.

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/greenhouse/post/2010/09/bp-gulf-victims-cannot-sue/1

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Filing claims directly with BP was a nightmare. Filing claims with the fund is much worse.

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/09/feinberg_to_attend_orange_beac.html
Orange Beach residents hoped that Feinberg would improve the system, but conditions have not improved.

"If anything, it’s gotten worse," Kennon said. "Before there was at least a person that a claimant could talk to, now it just goes into a black hole and all you see is a computer screen. . . "We all would love to talk to a live adjuster as we did when we had the BP process," Sherrill said. "There’s so much emotion and stress in a situation and you can’t get any answers."

Kennon said many business owners have tried to keep their businesses open until Labor Day, but now do not know what will happen. "They’ve tried to stay open, but they don’t know how much longer they can go on," Kennon said.

And now BP wants to take away people's direct access to the court system. BP is hoping that by the time Feinberg is done torturing people with his non-existent claims process, people won't have any remaining resources with which to take BP to court.

[mike r]

1. Even if they apologize to BP?

for getting in the way of the spill

[ejpoeta]

2. guess that's all part of their making it right bs. i am so sick of their commercials

claiming how they are going to make this right when they are going to screw the people over that they did this to.

[Robbien]

4. Those commercials aren't there to convince us

The commercials are just a way BP uses to be able to hand a ton of money over to the media. Buying up the media is BP's standard mode of operation.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Exactly!

The media making a ton of money from these PR commercials are less likely to critically cover BP's actions in depth, time and scope.

I'm not just talking about before and after the catastrophe, but BP's actions in real time as well.

That same corporate media will also be quicker to forget and less likely to cover the hard aspects of the people affected in the Gulf without giving BP the last word or benefit of the doubt.

They will just let BP suck up the oxygen in the room.

[lark]

11. I so agree, makes me want to hurl

They spend all these hundreds of thousands of dollars on mass media buys, but can;t spend one fucking dime (relatively) to clean the mess, bury the evidence with dispersants and claim it's all magically gone away. Worst part is our government allowing this to happen and even seems to be on BP's side, not the side of the Gulf.

:cry: :puke:

[gratuitous]

3. Gee, that's not what BP was saying in July

But that was then . . .

[aquart]

5. Lying, greedy, bastards.

[liberal N proud]

7. Greed the element which all others revolve

[HCE SuiGeneris]

6. Preemptively rescinding their obligations.

How very corporate of them. Such a nice "person".

Thank you Supreme Court.

[wordpix]

9. once again, the oil giants are making the rules for us all to follow

:grr: :mad:

[COLGATE4]

10. Not that uncommon a practice. It's a lot like mandatory

arbitration which most State courts insist on before a claim can be brought to trial. Designed to winnow out the claims that can be more easily disposed of (by money) so they don't all have to clog up the court's docket. It certainly is a whole lot faster and cheaper than suing. Fineberg has a good record in this type of thing - we should wait and see how it actually shakes out before condemning the process outright.

[dipsydoodle]

12. Isn't that the purpose of the escrow account ?

If not then what is its purpose ? :shrug:

Apart from that the article clearly states "may not yet have the right to sue over the spill". It doesn't state "will never be able to"

[kirby]

13. Exactly...

That is the whole purpose of the Ken Feinberg administered $20 Billion Escrow account. People who 'opt-out' can still sue.