AG: BP Trying To Get Alabamians To Give Up Right To Sue Over Spill

[deminks]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/ag_bp_trying_to_get_alabamians_to_give_up_right_to.php?ref=fpblg

BP has been offering $5000 payments to residents of coastal Alabama areas, in exchange for essentially giving up their right to sue the oil giant over its deadly Gulf Coast spill, according to the state's attorney general.

AG Troy King last night urged BP to stop the effort, and told Alabamians to be wary. "People need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that," King said, according to the Alabama press.

A spokesman for BP told a reporter that the waiver clause had now been removed from the contracts, and that the company won't enforce it in contracts that were previously signed. But King, a Republican, isn't satisfied. He said last night he's still concerned that the process could strip people of their right to sue.

Sid Jackson, a Mobile-based lawyer representing a shrimper who last week filed suit against BP, claiming that the spill had already taken a financial toll on his business, told TPMmuckraker that he believed BP would be wise to back down. "I think they kind of drop-kicked that clause into the fine print," Jackson said. But, "I think it would backfire" if BP tried to enforce it.

(snip)

BP has been hiring local fishermen to help with the effort to mitigate the impact of the spill -- and has included what seems to have been a similar clause in the contracts it asked them to sign.

(end snip)

Another morally bankrupt bizniz. And...a republican standing up for peoples' right to sue. Who knew?

[monmouth]

1. This is equivalent to being in a car accident and as soon as you

regain consciousness the "other guy's" lawyer is there with a check for you "for your trouble." Along with you signing a promise not to sue the other guy 'cause he's had troubles before. I thought everyone knew this stuff...

[DJ13]

2. Thats exactly what State Farm tried doing to me after an auto accident

Offered a "generous" $1,000.... no, lets make that $1,500....after one of their insured drivers turned left in front of me.

One day after I got home he came knocking on my door.

[BlooInBloo]

3. Looks like Napolitano caught wind of it, and told them to stop.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/5/2/862949/-BP-To-Gulf-Coast-Residents:-Well-Give-You-$5,000-If-You-Give-Up-Your-Right-To-Sue!-%28Updated-x2.5%29

[malaise]

4. When that American Airlines jet overshot the runway here

in Kingston, they made the same offer but the Jamaican lawyers went public very early.

[truedelphi]

5. Native American tribes did quite well after Exxon Valdez

Incident. And they had the marshy coast line of the Alaskan shore to temper the oil spill. Plus millions of acres left unharmed.