SALON

Thursday, Mar 8, 2012 6:27 PM UTC

Court Takes Over Oil Spill Claims

By

Topics: From the Wires,

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The man who has overseen the long, complicated job of paying out billions of dollars to the victims of the BP oil spill was relieved of his duties Thursday when a federal court took over the claims process in the aftermath of a historic settlement agreement.

U.S District Judge Carl Barbier’s order calls for a court-appointed administrator to take over from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility led by Kenneth Feinberg, who previously oversaw a compensation fund for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The move is part of a proposed multibillion-dollar settlement between BP and plaintiffs’ attorneys representing more than 100,000 individuals and businesses.

Feinberg said he was honored to oversee the claims process that BP created after its blown-out Macondo well triggered a deadly rig explosion in April 2010 and spawned the nation’s worst offshore oil spill.

“It was a difficult assignment, but I think we fulfilled our mandate,” Feinberg told The Associated Press during a telephone interview Thursday. “I think we did the job and we did it right.”

BP agreed to pay up to $20 billion to compensate commercial fishermen, charter captains, property owners, hotels and others who claim they suffered economic losses after the spill. The GCCF has processed about 221,300 claims and paid out more than $6 billion from the fund.

The judge appointed Lynn Greer, a Richmond, Va.-based attorney, to fill in for Feinberg and serve as transition coordinator. Patrick Juneau, a Lafayette-based attorney, will take over for Greer and serve as the court-appointed administrator for economic loss claims if Barbier gives preliminary approval to the settlement announced last Friday.

BP said it expects to pay out $7.8 billion in the settlement, but plaintiffs’ attorneys say the deal is uncapped. Plaintiffs’ attorneys who brokered the settlement have maintained that the court-supervised claims process is a better vehicle for resolving claims than the GCCF has been.

“I think that’s wonderful if they can make it more generous and broaden the eligibility criteria,” Feinberg said.

The fund paid out the most to businesses and individuals who lost wages and earnings because of the spill, or about $5.9 billion. But the fund also covered other claims and paid about $250,000 to fishermen and communities — such as American Indians — that depend on seafood in their daily lives, $198 million to cover death and injury claims stemming from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, $6.4 million for property damage and $2.6 million for cleanup.

The fund paid out emergency claims right after the spill, and then moved to get claimants to accept a final offer or take interim payments.

In a statement on Friday’s settlement announcement, BP Group CEO Bob Dudley thanked Feinberg and his team for their “dedication and professionalism” since the GCCF began operating in August 2010.

Feinberg’s critics complained that the GCCF, at least in its early days, processed claims too slowly and overlooked certain types of claims, including those by people who blamed ailments on exposure to oil and dispersants. Others questioned his independence.

“He was not independent. He was hand-picked by BP. He was paid by BP,” said Miami-based attorney Ervin Gonzalez, a member of the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee.

Gonzalez said the court-supervised settlement process offers “fair and full compensation without the administrative and bureaucratic burdens that were created by BP’s GCCF.”

Feinberg didn’t shy away from his critics. He frequently attended town hall meetings across the Gulf Coast, fielding questions from angry fishermen and others whose lives were disrupted by the spill.

“You have to be willing to confront your critics,” Feinberg said.

During the transition, individuals and businesses with pending settlement offers from the GCCF will be able receive 60 percent of the existing offer while they consider whether to participate in the court settlement. If they opt out, they must sign a release to get the remaining 40 percent. If they opt in, the court-supervised process will decide if they are entitled to more than what the GCCF offered.

___

Associated Press writer Cain Burdeau in New Orleans contributed to this report.

More Michael Kunzelman.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments are not enabled for this story.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
236 points237 points | 8 comments
vote
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks: Strongbox, co-created by the persecuted late technologist, is an open-source drop box for leaked documents
165 points166 points | 1 comment
vote
Loaded terminology like "entitlements" and "welfare" skews the debate and alters America. How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government.
147 points148 points | 39 comments
vote
Obstruction will ruin the GOP: Playing politics and abusing the system can excite the extremes, but it's a recipe for long-term political disaster
50 points51 points | 8 comments
vote
How right-wingers use semantic tricks to kill government -- "...much of the U.S. economic security support system consists of subsidies for the affluent in the form of tax breaks, like those for private retirement savings plans such as 401(k)s and private employer-provided health insurance."
31 points32 points | 3 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations