A recent Law 360 story, “Deepwater Attys to Get $555M Payout After BP Settlements,” reports that the attorneys who represented people and businesses affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will share $555.2 million in fees after negotiating approximately $13 billion worth of settlements with BP PLC in a case that a Louisiana federal judge called one of the largest MDLs in history.

The plaintiffs' steering committee earlier this year petitioned for a $600 million common benefit fee and cost award that included $555.2 million in fees plus expenses.  The settlements stemmed from economic and medical losses from the April 2010 disaster, which killed 11 rig workers and spewed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier granted the petition in full, noting the immense work involved in the case.  The judge said 107 common benefit firms submitted more than 585,000 hours, and the case comprised more than 130,000 individual civil actions or claims-in-limitation from private businesses, individuals and local governments.

“This MDL would appear to be one of the largest, if not the largest, MDLs in history,” Judge Barbier said.  “Yet even greater than its sheer size was the MDL’s complexity.”

The order says that while BP has agreed to pay up to $600 million in fees and expenses, the court still had a duty to sign off on the request to ensure the amounts are reasonable.

The 43-page order (pdf) details the mounds of work involved ranging from master pleadings and briefings, discovery and preparation for depositions, plus two trials.  After the major economic loss settlement, now worth around $9 billion, was reached, the attorneys also had to navigate an initial hold-back on settlement payments, the order says.

Though there’s few benchmark percentages for “super-mega-fund” fee awards where funds exceed $1 billion, Judge Barbier cited other cases that set the range to be between 4.8 percent to 15 percent.

Judge Barbier’s order says that BP in April estimated the total cost of the settlement is likely to be at least $12.9 billion, when the multiple settlements are taken into consideration.

The economic settlement reached in 2012 was valued to be at $7.8 billion.  But Judge Barbier’s order says that as of August of this year, more than $9 billion has been paid out or approved for more than 130,000 claims, and there’s still around 80,000 claims that haven’t been processed to competition.

The medical settlement payouts are worth at least $145 million, according to the order, and additional settlements were reached by the PCS with Halliburton and Transocean for a total of approximately $1.24 billion, the order says.

“Considering the foregoing, the court finds that a conservative estimate of the total value of the settlements is $13 billion,” Judge Barbier’s order said.  In this case, the $555.2 million award represents 4.3 percent of the fund, Judge Barbier said, which is “modest” compared to other percentages in super-mega-fund case.

Judge Barbier said that the case’s complexities involved navigating multiple federal frameworks including the Oil Pollution Act, the Clean Water Act and the Outer-Continental Shelf Lands Act, plus maritime laws, state laws, and U.S. Coast Guard and EPA regulations.

Alleged damages ran the gamut from economic loss to real and personal property damage; personal injury from exposure and personal injury and wrongful death from the explosion; plus wage claims, contract disputes and lost tax revenues, the order said.

“These attorneys, from the beginning, started to coordinate with one another and to take actions, not only for the protection of their own individual clients, but with an eye towards the advancement and protection of the common and collective interests of others who were likely to become litigants at some point in time,” Judge Barbier wrote.

Judge Barbier’s order says the allocation of the fee will be determined at a later date.

The case is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater Horizon" in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, case number 2:10-md-02179, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.