1 Year Anniversary of BP Gulf Oil Spill

In New Orleans on Wednesday, Poydras Street is replacing Bourbon Street as the hot spot, at least if you’re an attorney involved in the sprawling oil spill litigation.

Attorneys and potential plaintiffs are streaming into the Poydras Street federal courthouse there to file “short forms” that preserve their right to take part in the limitation of liability trial featuring Deepwater Horizon rig-owner Transocean Ltd.

They have until midnight tonight to do so, as we reported in this WSJ story, here.

Wednesday marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Businesses in the Gulf are fighting for a comeback, and so is the oil industry.

Anyone who wants to file suit against Transocean, BP PLC or any of the other companies tied to the spill must, for all intents and purposes, file the three-page form today. The liability trial won’t start until February 2012, during which federal Judge Carl Barbier could end up parsing out liability for all the companies involved.

Transocean wants to limit its liability to the value of its rig, about $27 million, by invoking an obscure maritime law. It has produced a contract with BP for the Macondo well that appears to clearly lay out that BP shall “indemnify and hold contractor harmless from and against any and all loss, cost, claim or cause of action arising directly or indirectly from company’s supervision of contractor’s drilling equipment and tools . . .”
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2011/04/20/on-one-year-anniversary-of-gulf-blast-plaintiffs-streaming-to-court/?mod=google_news_blog

A year later and still no legislation passed regarding drilling. Still have dead oil covered wildlife floating up on the beaches and many out of work due to rigs being pulled from the gulf.

But hey the good news is BP and Trans Ocean made record bonuses!