http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/10191739/BP-loses-bid-to-suspend-Gulf-of-Mexico-compensation-payouts.html
6:57PM BST 19 Jul 2013
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The British oil giant struck a deal to pay damages to victims of the oil spill after the Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded in 2010, killing 11 men and wreaking billions of dollars worth of damage to fishing and tourism businesses along the Louisiana coastline.
However, the deal opened the floodgates to 10,000 compensation claims a month, costing BP far more than the $7.8bn (£5.2bn) it had expected and leaving the oil major with a battle on its hands to try to limit the number of purported victims coming forward.
BP has no control over its payments to claimants, having agreed to a compensation formula and framework in a legal settlement covering certain personal and business liabilities.
The company’s open chequebook has spawned an industry of lawyers trawling for businesses and individuals to demand compensation, who are “coming forward in ever increasing numbers”, even though they “suffered no losses”, BP claims.
The oil company argues that the team responsible for awarding the payouts is ignoring the accepted legal meanings of words in the agreement, and that two of the lawyers working for the fund appeared to be taking kickbacks from at least one of the law-firms filing requests for compensation.
