A recent Courthouse News story, “Oil Spill Attorneys’ Fees Upheld” reports that the 5th Circuit upheld a federal judge’s order giving 6 percent of all Deepwater Horizon settlements or awards to 18 court-appointed plaintiff attorneys. Attorneys who are not members of the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee (PSC) in the oil spill litigation had asked the 5th Circuit to overturn U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier’s order on the 6 percent fees.
BP established a claims payment process through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF), establishing a $20 billion fund in August 2010, after the April 20, 2010 oil spill that killed 11 and set off the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. In October 2010, the court-appointed PSC was created to coordinate the more than 100,000 oil spill litigants whose consolidated lawsuits are being overseen by Judge Barbier in New Orleans Federal Court.
Attorneys who are not on the PSC argued that because BP stepped up as the party responsible for the oil spill and set up a $20 billion fund to pay victims before the PSC was created, it is unreasonable for the steering committee to claim that it had anything to do with BP’s claims payment process.
Anthony Buzbee, a Houston-based attorney not on the PSC, was among the attorneys who appealed Barbier’s ruling to the 5th Circuit. In his writ of mandamus, Buzbee writes, “The PSC conferred no benefit to petitioner, and thus has not even attempted to do so…Indeed, the PSC has, at times, intentionally or not, worked against the interests of many claimants and their counsel outside this litigation.”
The first oil spill trial will focus on the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Trial begins Feb. 27 and is expected to last 3 months.