Oil Litigation
oil litigation
President Needs To Take Charge of BP Oil Spill Damage Claims
BP DISASTER HIGHLIGHTS FAILURE TO BRING “CHANGE THE”, HIGHLIGHTS THE INEPTNESS OF TODAY’S GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Where Are Truman, Kennedy and Reagan When We Need Them
June 13, 2010—by Fred Kelly Grant
55 days ago the infamous explosion in the Gulf took 11 lives and scarred surviving workers and families of workers.
Thousands of gallons of oil began spoiling the ocean and moving toward land—-destroying the ocean life, wildlife, shore line and the economic life of millions of people bordering the Gulf of Mexico.
On Friday, on the 53rd day, the United States Coast Guard sent a “stern” letter to BP Oil executives demanding that within 48 hours they come up with a better plan to stop the oil leak. A “stern” letter to executives who have lied, delayed, and lied again as the oil spill continues to destroy a way of life and their profits continue. BP Oil reports over 11 BILLION DOLLAR PROFITS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER OF THIS YEAR. But, they drag their feet in the process for paying damages to the people who are without jobs, without food, without hope because of their negligence.
To me, the most frightening thing about this spill is that once again it demonstrates that the most powerful government in the world, the most powerful government official in the world is helpless against big oil!!!
This government, charged with regulating off shore oil drilling, charged with making sure that each driller has a preventive plan to avoid “accidents” like this, charged with making sure that each driller has a recovery plan sufficient to avoid the devastating effects of a spill such as those now being witnessed, has failed!
The failure is that of the Bush-Cheney administration to assure that deregulation did not lead to sloppiness in government oversight and in oil industry development.
It is also the failure of the Obama administration for not taking immediate action to rectify the sloppiness that we all knew existed in the regulatory agencies within the Department of Interior.
I am sick to death of the politicians casting blame on each other. Republican minority House leader John Boehner, whiner extraordinary from Ohio, this morning on “This Week” on ABC asked majority leader Denny Hoyer of Maryland “How long are you going to blame the Bush administration?” Hoyer replied “as long as it is appropriate.”
My answer is “as long as the consequences of the Bush-Cheney errors of judgment and deliberate favoritism of Cheney’s oil friends continue to plague the people of this country.”
But, an equally valid question is “When will the Obama administration and the Democrats start shouldering blame for not cleaning up the Bush mess sooner?”
The people of this country overwhelmingly elected Barack Obama because they wanted “change” from the terrible years of Bush-Cheney administration. “Change” was promised. But where is evidence of that “change”? Why hasn’t the terrible incompetence of the Department of Interior and its Minerals Management Service been cured?
We have been warned for years that the Service has turned a blind eye and deaf ear to safety. We have been warned for years that oversight and regulatory inspections by this Service were lax—particularly involving any structure or facility for which Cheney’s Haliburton Empire was accountable. So, why was not that a top priority for effort during the first 100 days?
The President may not have power against a big oil company once the damage is done, but he sure as the devil has the power to demand that an agency like MMS be cleaned out from the ground up. We saw how the power of the presidency could push through a Health Bill. Why has that power not been used to clean up the negligent, perhaps criminal, malfeasance within a department of the executive itself?
On June 9, 51 days after the terrible rupture in a facility for which Haliburton was responsible, the Secretary of Interior announced a new “directive” to improve safety on off shore drillers. It should not have taken an entire department of government nearly 18 months into a new presidency to start to remedy malfeasance that everyone knew existed.
Because of what I believe to be criminal negligence on the part of the Bush-Cheney administration, and criminal misfeasance on the part of the Obama administration in failing to cure the problem, millions of Americans will lose their way of life, their homes, and their businesses.
There is no excuse for any of it. The United States government is in fact the most powerful in the world. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy proved that a strong president with a strong supporting cast can successfully take on the Mafia, Union corruption, violation of civil rights, international shipments of weapons to the western hemisphere, and the economic and fiscal irresponsibility of big companies.
During the Kennedy years, the steel companies were more powerful even than the oil companies of today. When the major steel companies planned a price hike that would have resulted in crippling inflation, the president reached out to a smaller company and promised to deliver every government contract if it would hold the line on prices. Immediately the big companies caved in and held the price line. We avoided inflation.
President Obama could have acted just as decisively in the case of the Minerals Management Service. He could have cleaned house, he could have instructed Secretary Salazar to make that his first priority. Everybody knew that the failures of regulatory oversight put us at risk. Audit reports from as far back as the year 2000 made the risk clear, and described the inaction and negligence that created the risk.
So, I come to the most depressing thought of the day for me. The President of the United States, the most powerful government official in the world, is powerless to take on one huge oil company. BP Oil, making millions of dollars of profits EACH DAY THAT THE GULF AND ALL ITS PEOPLE ARE BEING DESTROYED, lies to the President, ignores the President’s demands, delays solutions to the problem, and watches as the worst environmental disaster in history—human and natural—continues to build.
How can we ever hope to become free of the strangle hold that the oil industry has on our economy and way of life, when the government cannot, or will not, take remedial action.
Second most depressing is the fact that the President is not even doing what he can. During one of the press conferences during this last week, the official in Admiral Thad Allen’s staff who is in charge of facilitating payment of claims by BP Oil said that she had been in meetings all day the prior day with BP claims officials trying to see how the process could be speeded up. She planned to spend two more days in those discussions. Typical government bureaucracy—the kind that Barack Obama promised us would change. Perhaps we should put together a book called “Claims payment for Dummies”. Any of us who have suffered an insurance loss could write it. “In three sentences explain what proof must accompany a claim submitted by someone harmed, send as many people to the Gulf as it takes to man a table in each town effected, sit them down at tables in each town, start taking claims and helping people fill out claims, and PAY THE CLAIMS.” End of story.
You say “it can’t be done”? Ridiculous. Of course it can be done. In the old days, before big companies began to delay payments in order to accumulate interest on their money while the injured wait, insurance companies handled disasters in that way. You can believe that if it were BP stockholders who were being harmed, company officials would be on the ball, handling complaints rapidly and successfully.
Since BP won’t do that, I have a suggestion for the President who promised change. “Mr. President, when you go to the Gulf tomorrow (Monday, June 14, 2010) take some folding tables with you, have the injured line up, take their claims and proof of loss, and then hand them to the Chief Executive Officer of BP and demand that they be paid within 48 hours.” With the Attorney General of the United States at your side, and with the United States Attorney of each District you visit at your side, explain to BP’s top dog that immediate action will be taken to nationalize the company if those claims are not paid within the 48 hours. Present them with a copy of the Executive Order by which you will take the action—it wouldn’t take Eric Holder and his staff longer than 3 hours to draft.
As George Will and other republican “philosophers” bemoan government interference with big business, threaten to take the courageous action that Harry Truman took with the railroads when he acted to avert a wartime strike.
Will it survive a court test? Who cares? Do you think BP will risk losing all those profits while the litigation drags on?
One of the two only reasons that our Founders collaborated on creating a federal government was to control the safety and security of our shores. The other was to prevent disruption of interstate commerce. Both reasons would be served by this simple act. Our shores are under attack in this case just as destructively as if a foreign power or an American terrorist group were attacking with military force. Interstate commerce dependent on the fishing industry of the Gulf will be irreparably harmed. So, both constitutional predicates are present to support the action.
Will it happen? Of course not. Why not? Because politics and political correctness rule every decision that our government makes. Our government is inept when it comes to facing down big oil. Because we do not have a president who will take the risk in behalf of hurting American people. Because we have had only three presidents during my knowing life that had the gumption to take such risk: Harry S. Truman, John Fitzgerald Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. I had hoped that Barack Obama who in so many ways reminded me of the courage that those three demonstrated would bring us back to those days. But not so.
People who have been polled during the last two weeks compare this disaster to the Katrina disaster. In my mind that is a ridiculous comparison. Katrina was a disaster that could have been taken care of immediately with prompt, effective action by local government using federal funds.
This disaster, in my mind, is more similar to the hostage crisis during the administration of Jimmy Carter. A third world country which at that time had no atom potential demonstrated the helplessness of a President unwilling to take a huge risk. Carter, the eternal optimist for peaceful solutions, refused to allow the Israelis to send in rescue teams to free our hostages.
He refused to even intimate that we would send in troops in sufficient force to punish the kidnappers even if it meant the loss of our hostages—-in order to assure that it would never happen again.
We knew at the time that the Israelis were capable of such rescues. We have all seen the rescue successfully implemented by the Israeli commandoes when the tyrant Idi Amin took and held hostages. They could have done the same for our hostages.
Carter proved how inept the Presidency can be, just as Truman, Kennedy and Reagan proved how powerful it can be.
The Carter ineptness is the backdrop for the BP oil spill disaster.
It is too bad. Too bad for our people along the Gulf Coast. Too bad for all our people in other states who depend on the industry of the Gulf Coast. Too bad for our nation that is shown to be helpless in the face of greed. Too bad for the world—if we can’t stop such a horrible human and natural disaster, if we can’t remedy the harm, what nation can?
What would it take for America to realize the Gulf Oil Problem has t be addressed NOW?
Look every day people talk about litigation, I mean the entire gulf coast will be uninhabitable while Nero Plays his Violin. Sounds familiar does America care at all about the gulf States? will somebody stop the Flow of OIL for Georgia Florida and Alabama’s sake Louisiana and Mississippi are already doomed on the coast. Do all the Southern Gulf State Shores have to DIE?
America WANTS to do something. but can’t. until they get government approval. jobs waiting to be created. machines ready to go clean. but no. our leader has forgotten the word “URGENT”. now, jobs and family-owned businesses, many for generations, are being lost due to government boondoggling.
Categories: Litigation Tags: bp, bp oil litigation, bp oil litigation group, environment, gulf oil litigation, gulf oil litigation group, law, litigation, oil, oil litigation
Litigation Management Council
litigation management council
Panama Private Interest Foundations
“Foundations are the favored asset protection tools
of the Super Rich such as the Rockefellers and Rothschilds”
A Panama Private Interest Foundation is sort of a combination of a will, a trust and a corporation best of all, in a sense. Panama Foundations are more versatile and can accomplish more than Trusts plus they are anonymous. It only takes 2-3 business days to form a Panama Foundation. Panama Corporations can be formed in the same 2-3 days even if the Corporation is to be owned by the Foundation. No one owns a Panama private Interest Foundation, so you are not the owner of the Foundation, no one is. A Panama Foundation can own the shares of a Panama Anonymous Bearer Share Corporation, thus removing you from being any sort of owner of the Corporation. Now since the Corporation is owned by the Foundation and you own neither it creates a most beneficial scenario for some people. Add to this you are not the founder of record of the Foundation (we supply a founder), you appear in no public registry or database in regards to the Foundation and the Foundation can even be so created that you are not even a beneficiary, you can just be the protector which is a private position never appearing in any database or public registry. You are not a beneficiary of the Foundation which some governments could view in a similar way to the beneficiary of a trust, not an owner of the Foundation and not really a true person of control, just a protector who protects things to make sure the wishes of the foundation are fulfilled. Foundation protectors do not initiate transactions just oversee them to make sure they are consistent with the wishes of the Foundation thus they are not persons with true control over the Foundation, they just have veto power. Read below to learn more and questions are always welcome. This is serious material that needs to be studied before one can truly appreciate all the thought that went into the legislation creating the Panama Private Interest Foundation with all its subtle and not so subtle advantages that make this the most outstanding asset protection tool in the world today.
Summary of Panama Foundation Benefits:
Protects assets (real estate, bank accounts, stocks, bonds, art and collectibles, corporations, boats planes, cars) from financial enemies and potential financial enemies. A Panama Foundation can own one or more Panama Corporations. This means you can operate an anonymous Panama Corporation which is not owned by you, it is owned by the Foundation. Foundations have no owners. A Panama Private Interest Foundation is a court tested method to keep assets immune from the personal debts of the person starting the Foundation. It prevents forced heir ship. The Panama statues relating to Foundations are based on the Lichtenstein model – “Stiftung”.
According to Panama law, the assets of a Panama Private Interest Foundation are not considered to be subject to sequestration or embargos. This means that the assets can not be frozen as a protective measure before a full trial is gone through. The meaning of sequester is as follows from the legal dictionary: a legal writ authorizing a sheriff or commissioner to take into custody the property of a defendant who is in contempt until the orders of a court are complied with, or a deposit whereby a neutral depositary agrees to hold property in litigation and to restore it to the party to whom it is adjudicated to belong to. The exception to this rule would be if the Foundation itself (not the founder, not the protector, not the council members, not the beneficiaries) did something illegal like for example it illegally broke a lease on a real estate transaction and refused to pay the rent owed, then the Foundation assets could be frozen to the extent of the amount owed under the contract if a judge so ordered and a bond was posted. If the Foundation itself does not directly commit the illegal action then the assets of the Foundation are not subject to freezing or seizure. This gives one great peace of mind when funding their foundation and we suggest to our clients that the Foundation never do anything that could lead to any litigation, think of it as a holding entity. Welcome to Panama.
The foundation can have instructions to dispose of assets in a certain way in the event of you encountering serious legal or other difficulties like being sued, being forced into bankruptcy, being kidnapped and held for ransom, being blackmailed or the victim of extortion, or if in any way you are incapacitated or your ability to function freely is inhibited in whole or in part, etc. There can be secret instructions for a specific person to deal with assets in such an event as the founder sees fit. These secret instructions can appoint a temporary protector in the event you are under such duress with specific instructions as to how he should proceed with the foundation and its assets. This would remove the ability for you to move the foundation assets around, period. This is now something you can not do until you can demonstrate to the person inserted as the temporary protector that the conditions acting as the trigger for the empowerment of the new protector are no longer in place or no longer operative and you are no longer under duress and then as per your instructions you will be the Protector again with all the power returned to you.
Panama Foundations have no owner thus there is no registry in existence that records Foundation ownership in Panama. The Foundation can be a shareholder or owner of a corporation. Thus your Foundation could be the owner of an anonymous Panama bearer share corporation which you use to conduct business. Then you could say you are not the owner of the corporation. Since a Panama Foundation really has no owner you would be telling the truth and in the unlikely event the Foundation came up you could also say you do not own that as well.
Foundations can be used to provide for the financial well being of family members according to your explicit instructions. Once could say my foundation income will go to my surviving spouse but in the event the spouse remarries then the foundation proceeds will go to my eldest child. This would be enforceable in Panama. The Foundation can protect closely held businesses, providing for continuity into second and third generations by preventing property-splitting; to protect and provide for minors or disabled persons or those incapable of managing their own assets; to manage payments of income or distribution of assets to family members or to provide for their education, housing, or maintenance.
The Foundation can manage profit sharing or pension plans for employees, to hold shares, participate in or have an interest in private or public companies; it is a vehicle for the collection of royalties. It can engage in commercial transactions where the proceeds of such are dedicated exclusively to the non-commercial purpose or objectives of the Foundation. Very useful point.
You could have a formal written agreement appointing you as the investment manager or business manager for the Foundation. This agreement would be signed by the Nominee Council members and would be notarized and apostilled if needed. The agreement could spell out your compensation including benefits like use of foundation auto, travel expenses, general expense account, use of foundation apartment or house, use of foundation boat, medical benefits to be paid directly by the foundation to the health care provider or doctor including elective surgery like plastic surgery, paid legal expenses direct from foundation to law firm, etc.
According to Panama law, the assets of a Panama Private Interest Foundation are considered to be “non-embargable”, and “non-sequesterable”, which means that the assets can not be frozen under any circumstances.
The Panama Foundation needs no business license.
The annual tax for the Foundation is fixed at $300, which is included in total subsequent year fees of $695 starting in year two.
The Foundation can serve as a last will and testament.
The Foundation can effectively guard against disputes amongst heirs.
The Foundation can carry on scientific, philanthropic, religious, humanitarian or educational purposes.
The Foundation can have bank accounts.
The Foundation income is tax free under Panama law.
Royalties, copyrights, trademarks can be assigned to the Foundation.
You can assign assets to a Panama Foundation in return for an annuity.
The Foundation can be an investment vehicle for real estate, stocks and bonds. It can hold bank accounts, boats, planes, artwork, collectibles or other assets with highly specific instructions as to how such assets should be dealt with under varying circumstances, all custom designed to meet your specific needs.
Restrictions – In general, Private Interest Foundations may not engage in commercial activities like a corporation but they may carry out commercial activities like owning corporations that are actively engaged in commercial business activities, as long as the profits of those activities are used for the purposes for which the Foundation exists. The Foundation can of course engage in passive investments like stock market investments, mutual funds, bank deposits bearing interest, Forex, bonds etc as long as the proceeds are used for the purposes for which the Foundation exists – for the benefit of the beneficiaries and you can of course be a beneficiary of the Foundation. You could also have an investment manager agreement with the foundation signed by the nominee council members, notarized and apostilled stating your compensation and benefits for managing the investments of the foundation. This agreement would be private and would document your role as an employee with the foundation.
Cast of Characters in a Panama Private Interest Foundation – The Foundation has a Founder, a Council, a Protector, and Beneficiaries.
Founder: The Founder is the person or entity that establishes the Foundation in the Public Registry of Panama. Our law firm provides a Founder for you since the Founder appears in the Public Registry. We provide a Founder who does not know you for your privacy, protection and anonymity. The Founder has no control of any sort over the Foundation and its affairs, and is only recognized as the individual who presented for filing the Foundation articles in the public registry when the foundation was originally registered.
Council: The Foundation’s Council can be thought of as being similar to the board of directors of a corporation. The council members are each recorded in the public registry with their names and identification as council members of the Foundation. Our firm appoints a Nominee Foundation Council to fill the council positions like we provide nominee directors for a corporation. The nominee council members do not know who you are to provide privacy and anonymity for you. Along with each nominee council member comes an undated letter of resignation enabling you to replace the council at any time. Nominee council members have no control over the Foundation assets, can not go to the bank and take money out since they are not bank account signatories. If the nominee council members tried to add, change or delete the bank account signatories the Panama bank would directly contact the existing signatories on the account for permission in which case the signatory would call the police and the nominees would go to jail. The nominees know this, Panama banks understand nominees and this is not a scam that will work. Being a nominee does not come with bank signatory privileges or any other form of asset control. A Panama Corporation can take the place of the nominee council members.
Protector: The Protector is the person or entity who has the real control over the foundation and all of the foundation assets. The Protector is appointed by the Foundation Council at the time the Foundation is created. After the Protector is put into position, the Protector is free to remove and replace the nominee council members whenever they chose to do so without any further permissions or steps needed to be taken. The Protectors appointment can be kept private through a notarized Private Protectorate Document, signed by the nominee foundation council members. This document is not registered or recorded anywhere thus the position of protector is quite private or just about anonymous, not to be found in any government database or registry. As protector you can maintain complete control over your foundation and its assets while maintaining serious privacy. A protector is not mandatory, and one can always use a nominee protector as well. It is possible to insert in the foundation charter or in its regulations that in order for the nominee council members to actually be able to exercise their powers they are required to obtain written authorization from the foundation protector. This means if they tried to do something on behalf of the foundation like enter into a contract they would be required to present the document that names them as foundation council members and this document also limits their ability to act requiring written permission from the protector. In the case of a bank, the bank contacts the existing signatories in the event there is a request to add, remove or change signatories. Same would apply regarding a request to close the bank account.
Beneficiaries: The Panama Private Interest Foundation does not have owners, it has foundation beneficiaries. The Foundations Beneficiaries are appointed by the Protector through either a simple private written set of instructions which will keep your beneficiaries private out of any registry or database. One could instead use a more formal set of Foundation By-Laws. Either way, the privacy and confidentiality of beneficiaries can be assured. This is important to protect against kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, identity theft, frivolous litigation (if ones assets are concealed they are not so much of a target). The Panama Foundation may be set up so that the protector (that would be you) is the sole beneficiary of the foundation until death, at which time the foundation continues but its purpose alters for the benefit of the other beneficiaries you so designate. You could insert instructions that are highly specific like if a certain beneficiary (say surviving spouse) remarried their benefits may shift to another beneficiary (children). Foundations can continue for 120 years. Panama Foundations restrict the ability for the beneficiaries to fight with each other over the estate and wind up not speaking to each other for the rest of their lives.
Letter of Instructions: The Letter of Instructions is a simple letter, written by the Protector, which specifies exactly how the Foundations assets should be handled or distributed upon a triggering event such as the death or incapacity of the Protector. The Letter of Instructions should also state whether the Foundation should continue existing, and have a new Protector appointed, or if the Foundation should be dissolved and how the assets should be liquidated upon the death of the Protector. There is no specific format for the Letter of Instructions, and it can be written or changed at any time after the Foundation is formed, per the Protectors wishes. The Letter of Instructions can be held privately with no filing requirement so there is non-disclosure of details with serious privacy for all concerned. Generally, most people prefer to maintain the Letter of Instructions privately, so that the Beneficiaries and Protector remain anonymous and private.
Foundation By-Laws: The Foundation does not need to have By-Laws, since a Letter of Instructions is legally sufficient for fulfilling the Protectors’ requested testamentary instructions or wishes. However, one could have a more formal Foundation testamentary document, written and signed by an attorney from our law firm, and notarized by a Panamanian notary. The Foundations By-Laws essentially handle the same function as a Letter of Instructions since the By-Laws specifying how the Foundation should respond upon a specific triggering event such as the death or incapacity of the Protector. The By-Laws should also state whether the Foundation should continue existing, and have a new Protector appointed, or if the Foundation should be dissolved upon the specified triggering event(s). There is a legal precedent that the By-Laws must follow. By-Laws content can be modified at any time at the discretion of the protector. The By-Laws can be held privately for anonymity, or can be registered publicly which is not suggested normally.
http://www.panamalaw.org/panama_foundations.html
http://www.panamalaw.org/panama_financial_services_corporation.html
For more information, please visit:
http://www.panamalaw.org
email at: panamalegal@hush.com
CUSTOMS Pittsburgh Facility Named Tech 50 Awards finalist for second year in a row from Pittsburgh Technology Council ZOLL Medical Corporation (Nasdaq: ZOLL), a manufacturer of medical devices and related software solutions, today announced that the Pittsburgh …
Categories: Litigation Tags: energy, environment, expertwitness, litigation, litigation management council, sustainability
Litigation Oil Spill
litigation oil spill
South Florida Businesses Should Prepare for BP Oil Spill Claims
With the news today that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill catastrophe is threatening to affect the coastal areas of the Florida Panhandle, it is time the rest of Florida’s businesses take a hard look at whether their business will be affected by the oil spill. Estimates of how much oil continues to spew into the ocean range wildly from BP’s estimate of 5,000 barrels of oil, to other estimates of up to 70,000 barrels of oil per day.
Once this oil slick hits the gulfstream, it in only a matter of time before it continues around the lower part of the State of Florida and starts to have a negative effect on businesses already struggling to survive. Lloyd’s of London has estimated that net claims from the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico currently stand between $300 million and $600 million. The damage caused by this disaster is predicted to go far into the billions of dollars.
It is easy to see how fisherman that make a living off fishing in the Gulf of Mexico will be affected. The same could be said for the hotel industry, and other businesses closely tied to the Panhandle and Gulf of Mexico. BP has even set up claims offices throughout the Panhandle in Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Fort Walton Beach, Crawfordville, Apalachicola, Port St. Joe, and Panama City Beach. However, there have been no BP Claims Centers opened in the Central Gulf Coast, or in South Florida despite numerous and continued reports that indicate the giant oil slick is coming our way.
South Florida attorney Joseph M. Maus says that oil spill legal issues are already being determined by companies and groups that have filed early claims against BP. If you wait too long, the manner in which a claim can be made will have already been decided, and many of the issues which affect your claim, and the amount you can recover, may have been decide too. There are a few things you can do now to understand and maximize any claims you may have for your business:
1. Don’t be shortsighted – virtually every business in South Florida has the potential to be affected by this disaster. Tourism, the lifeblood of South Florida’ economy, supports not only those directly involved in hotels, attractions, beaches and travel, if indirectly supports almost every business in South Florida – the restaurant industry, the real estate industry, manufacturing, marinas and supply businesses. Take the time now to assess your business and its revenue. The full brunt of this Oil disaster may not be felt by your business for 6-12 months, or longer. And, it could affect your business for many years to come.
2. Be Informed and Know the Facts – Many business owners have taken a “wait and see” approach. This may work in the short term, but it is better to stay on top of your rights, and the appropriate time frame to make a claim. Attorney Joseph M. Maus says that oil spill attorneys are offering a “consulting agreement” to keep business owners, and trade organizations up to date on the BP Oil Spill litigation and claims process. BP is already working to gain a favorable jurisdiction in Texas to process most claims. BP has also already attempted to limit the amount of its liability based upon a decades old maritime law. Attorney Maus says failing to stay informed, and represented, could allow BP to corral many unsuspecting businesses into a legal venue that is not favorable to a Florida business.
3. Know the Laws that Apply – Claims arising out of the BP oil disaster are going to be processes through a complex maze of state and federal laws. One of the most comprehensive laws that will apply is the Federal Oil Pollution Act. This Act imposes “strict liability” on a “responsible party” that discharges oil into the water and causes damage. However, this law also includes damage caps (sometimes only $75,000,000), presuit requirements, and time limitations. Other state and/or federal laws may apply which also have damages caps, presuit requirements and additional time limitations.
The Oil Spill legal process is already moving at an incredible rate. The fighting has begun over what venue claims will be handled in, which laws will apply, whether there will be damages caps, what the time limitations will be , and may other critical issues that will have a direct impact on any claim you may want to make. BP has an incredible amount to lose in the claims process and they already have an army of lawyers attempting to shape the way your claim is going to be handled.
Attorney Joseph M. Maus recommends entering into a consulting agreement with an attorney now to ensure your rights are protected. The consulting agreement does not bind you into making a claim down the road, but it keeps you informed about the claims process so that when you start to see an affect on your business, you’ll know how best to proceed, and you will not miss and presuit deadlines. Attorney Maus recommends a consulting agreement for all business that will be affected by the spill – from marinas and businesses in the yachting industry, to the rental car and hotel industry, fishing businesses, restaurant trade groups, and anybody that relies on tourists for their business.
Attorney Maus’ office is located in Pompano Beach, Florida and he can be reached toll free at (866) 556-5529. He serves South Florida including Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, and Palm Beach.
Who will be the next Republican to apologize to BP?
“I think it is a tragedy in the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown — in this case a $20 billion shakedown — with the attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the American people, participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund that’s unprecedented in our nation’s history, which has no legal standing, which I think sets a terrible precedent for our nation’s future.” – Rep. Joe Barton
Personally I think the true tragedy is that BP was allowed to spill billions of gallons of oil into our waters and on our beaches, and that our fishermen and women may be subjected to years of litigation with BP, all while their bills continue to pile up with no way to cope. But maybe I’m wrong and BP is the true victim here?
Bobby Jindal, probably…
Public authorities to concerns Michigan River Oil Spill Public to voice concerns at meeting on oil spill in southern Michigan, Michigan River – Oil Slick – Environment – Energy – Kalamazoo River
Categories: Litigation Tags: bp, bp litigation oil spill, environment, hb litigation oil spill, litigation, litigation oil spill, oil, oilspill