Gulf Oil Spill Trial Delayed For Settlement Talks By The Associated Press | npr | February 26, 2012 Excerpts: A federal trial over the nation's worst offshore oil disaster has been delayed for a week to allow more time for settlement talks, a judge ruled Sunday. The brief order from U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said only that the order was issued "for reasons of judicial efficiency and to allow the parties to make further progress in their settlement discussions." Among other things, the trial that is now set to begin March 5 is meant to determine the penalties that need to be paid by BP and other companies involved in the oil spill. Billions of dollars are at stake. Separately, BP has had discussions in recent days with the federal government and cement contractor Halliburton, according to several people close to the case. The decisions and actions that led to the explosion and spill already have been painstakingly investigated by the Coast Guard, federal regulators and a presidential commission. Their probes concluded BP, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cement contractor Halliburton Energy Services Inc. deserve to share the blame for a string of risky decisions that were designed to save time and money. The Deepwater Horizon was drilling in water a mile deep the night of April 20, 2010 when an explosion and fire rocked the rig. It burned for two days before sinking. An estimated 206 million gallons of oil spilled out of the BP-owned Macondo well over several months, fouling sandy beaches and coastal marshes and shutting vast areas of the Gulf of Mexico to fishing.Roughly 340 plaintiffs' lawyers have worked on the case. BP has spent millions of dollars on experts and law firms. More than 300 depositions have been taken. Millions of pages of legal briefs have been filed. One Justice Department lawyer said it would take him 210 years to read all the pages submitted into the record if he read 1,000 pages a day. Barbier, a former president of the Louisiana Trial Lawyers Association and appointee of President Bill Clinton, has a reputation for speedy but fair trials. He will hear and decide the case without a jury. Each trial phase is expected to last two to three months, with breaks in between. Even if all parties settle their claims before or during the trial, it could take several months for claims to be paid. read more: http://www.npr.org/2012/02/26/147459241/gulf-oil-spill-trial-delayed-for-settlement-talks ........ We have three entities who are at fault for the Gulf Oil Spill, BP, Transocean Ltd, and Halliburton Energy Services, each will share in paying the financial settlement. We all remember when Halliburton, formerly run by Dick Cheney, (Bushs VP from 2001 thru 200 was given the Afghanistan and Iraq contracts to build barracks, feed troops, transport arms, and who then subcontracted to others (jacking up the costs) to actually do the work while they pocketed many millions of taxpayers dollars from 2001 thru 2008. Troops found bullet shells in food, were electrocuted in showers because of faulty, inferior wiring. The scandal of Vets hospitals being filled with inferior work, neglect, with some vets rooms filled with mold and mildew. And again in Hurricane Katrina, Halliburton was given the bid to rebuild in New Orleans with more fraud. Cheney directly was the cause of Halliburtons vast rise in the stock market with trillions of dollars in profits thru their contracts with the Bush administration. Now it looks like some Americans may get some of the taxpayers money back by their lawsuits that will be heard. I hope the settlement breaks the Halliburton company because they have stolen enough from American taxpayers thru their fraud during wars, and is still going on.
Halliburton is a good company.. and please realize that they have been working in the ME for 6 decades.. They have the native subcontractor relationships and experience. Further, nobody 'bids' on jobs in a war zone.. Its all cost plus... because you can't control supply of materials or sabotage or safe transportation.. and employee wages are considered hazard pay. As for Cheney.. his job was 'marketing'... He was hired to lobby his government contacts to lift sanctions on Iran, Iraq, Libya and the Stans during the Clinton administration. Remember, Cheney worked in government his whole life.
