New Film, "Crude Justice," Documents an Uphill Battle for Oil Spill Victims

This morning we launched our new First Monday Film, Crude Justice. The film's narrator, Ed Begley, Jr. wrote a blog post on Change.org today to promote the film, which you can watch below.

April 20, 2010, was one of the worst days in our nation’s recent history. The explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig cost 11 lives and did catastrophic damage to the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. It also wrecked the lives and livelihoods of untold thousands of people who make a living in and near the Gulf.

As an environmentalist and as an American, it was heartbreaking to watch the live video of the hideous clouds of oil billowing out of the well all summer, knowing that every barrel was another blow to the environment, wildlife, and people of the Gulf. As the oil poured in, the lifeblood of the region drained out.

Although the oil no longer flows, Americans need to know that the crisis is most assuredly not over. No one knows exactly how much oil remains in the waters of the Gulf, but almost no one takes seriously early claims that three-quarters of it has miraculously vanished. The environmental and human effects of this calamity will certainly be felt for years. After all, oil is still present in the ecosystem of Alaska, over two decades after the Exxon Valdez spill. From Louisiana to Florida, shrimpers, oystermen, fishermen, motel owners, and countless small businesses that support the tourism and fishing industries have still not recovered. Some never will.

Inevitably, as the crisis unfolds, perhaps over many years, thousands of individuals, businesses, and organizations will turn to the legal system for justice and compensation. But what is the nature of the legal environment the victims of the disaster are facing as they turn for help to the courts or to BP’s $20 billion compensation fund? Can justice be found for the hard-pressed people of the Gulf?

That’s the subject of an important new film called Crude Justice that I was proud to narrate for Alliance for Justice, and which is being released today, October 4.

(Read the blog post in it entirety at Change.org)

Crude Justice from Alliance for Justice on Vimeo.

You can take action by sending a letter to BP here.

New Orleans Judge to Hear Oil Spill Cases

Yesterday, a panel of judges decided that hundreds of claims arising out of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill will be consolidated before a New Orleans judge for pretrial proceedings. Litigants in the case filed motions before the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation requesting consolidation in a number of venues, including Louisiana, Alabama, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

The oil and gas company defendants favored Houston, where their headquarters are based. BP took their request a step further by requesting a particular Houston judge, Judge Lynn Hughes, a jurist with extensive ties to the oil and gas industry. The fact that the Panel did not accommodate BP’s request is a victory for justice.

Instead, the panel transferred the Mutlidistrict Litigaiton (MDL) to Judge Carl Barbier, of the Eastern District of Louisiana, which includes New Orleans. In the Panel’s written opinion, they explained that “Without discounting the spill’s effects on other states, if there is a geographic and psychological ‘center of gravity’ in this docket, then the Eastern District of Louisiana is closest to it.”

Judge Barbier is a distinguished jurist and is well respected by practitioners in the area. A review of lawyer evaluations from Judge Barbier’s Federal Judicial Almanac confirm this consensus: “one of the smartest judges in the district,” “balanced,” “a fine trial judge,” “very polite and professional,” and “fair.” Judge Barbier was born in New Orleans, graduated from Southeaster Louisiana University, and Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. Jude Barbier was nominated to the federal bench by President Clinton in 1998. The JPML opinion noted that Judge Barbier has considerable MDL experience, and that he was already handling dozens of cases related to the oil spill. The opinion stated that “We have every confidence that he is well prepared to handle a litigation of this magnitude.”

In addition to all of the claims brought under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA), the panel decided to consolidate wrongful death and personal injury claims into the MDL. Some attorneys had expressed concern over consolidating these claims with claims dealing primarily with economic loss and property damage, as MDL is known to be an extremely time-consuming process that can take years. Despite these concerns, the JPML reasoned that “these actions do overlap factually with the other actions in this docket” and ordered their consolidation.