Oil continues to come ashore all along the Gulf Coast, and up to 100,000 barrels of toxic crude continue to flood into the ocean every day, a hundred times more than the initial oil spill calculation by BP and 25 times the initial government estimate. The results are a devastating loss of marine wildlife and their ecosystem . Fragile wetlands are being decimated, as well as many local jobs and ways of life. While such loss cannot yet be calculated , oil spill lawyers from Florida to Louisiana are preparing for the thousands of oil spill lawsuits being filed. Most lawsuits are targeting BP, Transocean (the operator of the oil platform whose explosion started the spill) and other companies associated with the Transocean Deepwater Horizon.
Attorneys estimate hundreds of thousands of affected parties in the Gulf Coast region are seeking losses due to the oil spill . So far, oil spill lawsuits include oystermen, charter boat captains, travel & tourism businesses and individual property owners. The economic hardship due to unemployment and loss of rental income is staggering. President Obama makes connections between this oil spill – the worst ecological disaster of all time – and the terrorist attacks of 9/11 for good reason; this is not just an environmental crisis, it is a human rights crisis. People’s lives have radically changed for the worse as both their cultures and economies are destroyed. Families that have relied for generations on the fishing industries face an uncertain future. Native Americans living on “water cities” in the Gulf are being forced to move and will likely to lose their way of life. The State of Florida reports almost 4,000 jobs lost.
The government is responding to the rights of legitimate claims. David Axelrod, a White House senior advisor said , “We want to make sure that money is escrowed for the legitimate claims that are going to be made and are being made by businesses down in the Gulf, people who have been damaged by this. And we want to make sure that money is independently managed so that they won’t be slow-walked on these claims.” Although recent news reports are showing fishermen’s oil spill claims are being paid in a less than timely manner and may not be equal to the amount of lost income.
This demand by the Obama administration strengthens existing and future claims – both civil and class action oil spill lawsuits. Currently there are at least 26 potential class action lawsuits being filed, representing many thousands of people. Those in similar situations can band together to claim economic losses due to company negligence. Despite the establishment of the $20 billion BP fund for paying oil spill claims, many who have applied have yet to even receive notification that their claim has been acknowledged, let alone be paid. With money ready to be paid out, when will the oil spill claims process catch up with the cash?