Friday, March 13, 2015

DHECC - All quiet on the southern front?

Word is that Louis Freeh has brokered a peace treaty between BP and Pat Juneau/Judge Carl Barbier. Not sure what this means for the settlement as a whole, probably not a damn thing in respect to claims actually being paid instead of being logjammed by Freeh and the other court vendors.  495 is here to stay, so between that and Freeh don't expect to see much change in actual claims being paid.

What the peace treaty most likely means is that BP got exactly what they wanted and agreed to stop exposing all the self-dealing Juneau and the PSC have orchestrated....the question is what exactly did BP get.  

BP drops their attempt to remove Juneau, Jessica Batt and her husband (PricewaterhouseCoopers employee) conveniently land jobs in merry old England shipping out the main witness that could be deposed to find out what deal McNamee made with Juneau, the McGladrey whistleblower goes MIA (I hope the person is physically ok), Freeh continues to fucksnu as many claims as he can while billing millions a month along with the other court vendors.....everyone is in great shape except the people who were actually affected by the oil spill.

The burning question....did Barbier concede anything to BP in order to get them to play nice.  I'm sure we'll find out when he decides how much BP will pay in fines.  If he low balls it, you'll know why.

Meanwhile....In-Hale checks in with the latest casualty report:

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "DHECC - One big happy family": 

Why isn’t BP bellyaching about Admin expense? 

Taken from the Discretionary Review Notice. Unlike the appeals these are not numbered page 2 of 17. 


Currently we have 27,340 offers made to the Coastal Property owners with 20,745 Unique Claimants required to sign a release.

Here’s the game once you sign the release you have 6 months to file all other claims. The delays and changing requirements for rental properties have ran out the clock for most of these claimants all by design. These claimants will never see a penny for the lost rental income caused by the spill. 

This is the first DC ruling; now watch the Other Denials numbers grow as these claimants learn about deadlines. 

Patrick the PSC and the Court Vendors saved every dollar these guys charged BP to administrate the settlement plus billions more. 

“The Program denied this claim twice. The Appeal Panel reversed, finding that a claimant may file multiple Coastal Real Property claims for the same property. Here, claimant filed a Coastal Real Property claim with the CSSP in August 2013, was compensated and signed a CSSP Release. The CSSP Release was executed as required by the Settlement Agreement (see Section 4.4.1.0 and Exhibit 26). Once that was done, no further Coastal Real Property claims as to that parcel of real property can be processed. The CSSP Release effects a release of all of the claimant's potential claims save and except for the limited right to assert "additional claims" within six (6) months as provided in Section 4.4.8 of the Settlement Agreement. The Court finds that the reference to "additional claims" in Section 4.4.8 does not include claims of the same claim type relative to the same parcel of land. Thus, a second Coastal Real Property Claim may not be processed and paid on this property. This is how the Claims Administrator has consistently interpreted and applied the Settlement Agreement and the Court agrees with that interpretation.”

IN-HALE  

Also, I'm curious about this comment Kevin left last night.  Usually, when he leaves comments like this it turns out to have legs.  I'm having a hard time believing a PSC firm could file a claim for losses incurred by their own firm...and if they did was that claim expedited?   


Kevin has left a new comment on your post "DHECC - Comment Bump, March 8, 2015": 


There are class counsel whose private law practices are located within settlement zones where other law practices were found by the DHECC to be members of the Economic and Property Damages Settlement Class (pre-495).

I haven't scoured the massive settlement document, but after a reasonable search I haven't been able to find any language that says the class counsel and their law practices are excluded from the settlement. Would someone please point me to the page(s) in the settlement document?

If there is no such exclusion, can someone be class counsel and their firm be a class member in this settlement? Have any class counsel or their firm(s) received any BEL or IEL awards from the DHECC?

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Class counsel is not excluded and yes a firm received an offer from DHECC.

Kevin said...


Anonymous:

Just 1 class counsel firm received an "offer?" Was it pre-495 or post-495?

Did any class counsel or their firm receive any payment for their own claim?

Are any class counsel making claims for other businesses (non-law) or property they own?

Anonymous said...

I seem to recall a BP filing in the early stages of the matching issue that complained of at least one PSC firm making a claim. But it might have been just a firm with a lot of claimant clients.

Jason Brad Berry said...

"...yes a firm received an offer from DHECC"

Who is the firm?

Anonymous said...

The speculation is that once the statute runs, BEL claims payment will speed up. It seems the claims get worked up to the point of issuing an eligibility notice and just sit there.

Anonymous said...

Use the mapping system and see how these PSC firms along with their local clients made out. Zone A causation is presumed and B has very little causation required.

Funny how all the named Plaintiffs in the case received preferential treatment. None of them are located in Zone C or D.

Jason Brad Berry said...

Yeah, I'm very aware of the irregularities in how the zones were laid out vis-a-vis PSC firms. I was going to do a video on that but I never got around to it.

Can anyone tell me who the PSC firm is that received the offer?

Gabrielle Dalemberte said...

Yes, a law firm can be a claimant and a PSC member and at least three PSC members have made claims, which BP fought, but had no basis to deny.

Anonymous said...

The zone layout definitely benefited the PSC members. Areas which were relatively unaffected, if at all, by the spill were gifted with Zone A and B.

If you were planning a bachelor party in New Orleans in post-spill 2010, would the disaster prevent you from going to the strip clubs and bars on Bourbon?

Attorneys who were in the trenches fighting for the people of the Gulf before the settlement was announced were also left out of the PSC if I recall?

Anonymous said...

I recall the arguments made on the zones it was designed by the most likely injured.

Funny how most of the line follow the Zip code maps the same process GCCF used.

Fairness Hearing minutes 12:49pm
MR. GODFREY: I know that now. How do I know that?

Because one of the two leading negotiators has a summer house there. So the notion that we didn't hear about Destin 24/7 for nine months and one day, that's a nonstarter. Mr. Fayard still has the house there. He still goes with his wife, Frances. I've never been invited, I probably never will be, but I know about Destin.

Third --
Slide 35, please, Matthew.-- how were the zones developed? They were designed to reflect that as distance from the Gulf beaches increases, the possibility of economic damage due to the spill decreases.

It's not only common sense; it's economic reality. That's just the reality. The further north you go, the further away from the beaches, the less impact.

They were a product of arm's length negotiations informed by local experts. I didn't personally do the drive-arounds. We had people on our team, people on their team, and experts who did the drive-arounds. I think Mr. Rice went a couple of times because he kept arguing about this particular locality and that particular locality.

Third, the experts have looked at it. They agree. These are experts with deep experience and from the region.

Finally, they're the zones most likely to have been injured.