NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge today outlined his plan for conducting a trial designed to assign percentages of fault to the companies sued over last year’s deadly Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and Gulf oil spill.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who oversees tens of thousands of claims spawned by the disaster, said the trial scheduled to start Feb. 27, 2012, will be held in three phases.
The first phase will focus on causes of the well blowout, rig blast and release of oil. Barbier called this the “incident phase.”
The second phase deals with efforts to stop the gusher and quantify how much oil spilled from the well owned by BP PLC. The third phase will include testimony about spill cleanup.
Barbier will preside over the trial without a jury. The proceedings are expected to last several months.
Besides apportioning fault, the trial also is designed to determine whether rig owner Transocean can limit what it pays claimants under maritime law.
Trial preparations have included depositions by 176 witnesses and generated more than five million pages of documents shared among the parties, a BP lawyer said during Friday’s hearing.
“I think we’ve all made good progress here,” Barbier said.
The Obama administration should be included since it delayed stopping the leak at every turn. Those trying to stop it had to get government approval before they could make attempts to plug the flow, and sometimes it took days to get the approval.
It is amazing that an industry as big as drilling, is not smart enough to stop a simple leak that was caused due to laziness and greed. They are all 100% accountable for this tragic mess.
It should be obama on trial…he was absent from duty for 60 days…
Obama did delay efforts to contain the leak at every turn siting the need for EPA/Coast Guard approval of things they know nothing about and haven’t been tried before.
I do agree BP should not be completely at fault, no matter what TransOceans contract says. BP has already been stuck with 20 billion even though cleanup and damages were half that.
MoralRight
August 12, 2011, 1:04 PM
It is amazing that an industry as big as drilling, is not smart enough to stop a simple leak that was caused due to laziness and greed. They are all 100% accountable for this tragic mess.
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Your statement shows all your total ignorance about the subject….Not even worth trying to show you the truth in the matter….