BP Offering One-Time Payments To Gulf Oil Spill Victims In Attempt To Avoid Lawsuits

[babylonsister]

BP offers one-off payouts to stem Gulf oil spill lawsuits

Lump-sum compensation offered in return for waiving the right to sue, but uncertainty remains for those indirectly affected

* Tim Webb
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 1 August 2010 16.53 BST



Lump-sum compensation offered in return for waiving the right to sue, but uncertainty remains for those indirectly affected

BP will begin its legal offensive this month to cap its liabilities from the Gulf of Mexico disaster by offering those affected one-off compensation payouts in return for them waiving the right to sue.

US lawyers say tens of thousands of affected people in the Gulf, particularly those in the fishing and tourism industries, are weeks away from bankruptcy.

BP, which will try to permanently seal the Macondo well with a "static kill" operation on Tuesday, hopes that settling claims in this way will help it to begin to draw a line under the crisis and to quantify the costs.

But lawyers say it is impossible to calculate future lost earnings. There is also no way for claimants to know whether they would receive more compensation if they decided to sue BP in the courts, which would take many months with no guarantee of success. Brent Coon, a Houston-based lawyer, said: "These are mostly uneducated people."

Applicants could rush to apply for a one-off, lump sum payout if they believe that BP will run out of money or will put its US business into bankruptcy.

more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/01/bp-gulf-oil-spill-compensation

[Bluzmann57]

1. Well, uh, gee, who didn't see that coming?

They pay off any claimants who will not get anywhere near what they lost, and that's it. It's done as far as BP is concerned.

[theoldman]

2. Did Exxon pay it debts? No

Will BP pay it Debts? No

[Subdivisions]

3. So, BP devestates an entire region of a living sea, they ruin the culture

and livelihood of thousands; they lie and obfuscate the entire way: they hold out funds from those who rightfully deserve them: they starve them for funds for months; they enjoy the benefit of a media who has for two weeks begun and then perpetuated a spin machine that is systematically both changing the public's perception of the spill and it's severity.

Now, after they've left everyone DESPERATE for ANYTHING in the way of funds on which to survive, they offer a one-time payoff in return for immunity from being sued? That is as low as it gets.

And they will get away with it all. Because we allowed them to.

[Odin2005]

4. This is BRIBERY.

:grr:

[babylonsister]

6. That's what it sounds like to me also. nt

[KharmaTrain]

7. The Way Things Are Done...

You have the option...take the lump sum and go away or wait for years...maybe decades for a court to decide the case...and then there's no guarantee you're gonna win.

The real bribery is in the judge shopping that's going on...

[Roon]

5. I would take the money and leave the gulf

Go inland,start over, maybe get a new trade with a student loan. I would never want to be around the gulf again.

[blindpig]

8. Expropriate without compensation.

Make an example of those capitalist bastards.