Keine besonders gute Nachricht für BP; der Vorsitzende Richter war ehemaliger Klägeranwalt und auch noch Vorsitzender der Vereinigung der Prozessanwälte in Louisiana, zudem ist New Orleans vermutlich eher klägerfreundlicher gestimmt als z.B. Houston, einer Stadt mit vielen der größten US-Ölfirmen.
Wall Street Journal / Law, By DIONNE SEARCEY; Nearly 300 lawsuits related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will be heard in New Orleans, a venue many attorneys see as friendly to plaintiffs, a panel of federal judges ordered Tuesday. U.S District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana will hear the civil suits filed against BP PLC and other defendants by shrimpers, resort owners and others. All say they have lost revenues because of the Gulf’s oil-tainted waters. The lawsuits also include environmental claims as well as personal injury and wrongful death actions filed on behalf of workers hurt or killed when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded April 20. Also, Judge Barbier will oversee rig owner Transocean Ltd.’s efforts to limit its liability.
New Orleans, about 130 miles away from the crippled well, was the site of choice for the majority of the plaintiffs‘ attorneys. They viewed it as favorable to their cases because so many potential jurors there have been affected by the spill. Defendants had been vying for oil-friendly Houston.
„If there is a geographic and psychological ‚center of gravity‘ in this docket, then the Eastern District of Louisiana is closest to it,“ panel chief judge John G. Heyburn II said in his order.
BP said that it respected the panel’s decision and looked forward to the cases proceeding expeditiously. A spokesman for Transocean said the company supported the order.
Louisiana plaintiffs‘ attorney Christopher Coffin, whose clients include fishermen, called the order significant because „thousands and thousands of property owners, business owners, and fishermen in and around the Louisiana Gulf Coast are at the heart of this disaster.“
Vanderbilt University law professor Richard Nagareda predicted most of the cases likely will settle, but New Orleans was important „for atmospherics.“ „There’s a sense of justice being done within the community significantly affected,“ he said.
Some defendants had tried unsuccessfully to remove Judge Barbier from oil cases before him because he sold off bonds of Transocean and Halliburton Co., a well contractor, about a month after oil suits came before him in the spring. The judge decided not to recuse himself.
In its order on Tuesday, the panel of judges called Judge Barbier „an exceptional jurist.“ Judge Barbier, a 1998 Clinton-nominee who declined to comment on his new appointment, is a former plaintiffs‘ attorney and past president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association.
Also Tuesday, the panel ordered that civil securities litigation tied to BP would be heard before U.S. District Court Judge Keith P. Ellison in Houston.
