Arsenault is among a group of attorneys who have been working with claims administrator, Kennth Feinberg, and the unprecedented $20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility set up by BP and the Obama administration.  This avenue may offer faster compensation, but it may also mean waiving your right to sue BP.  Arsenault is explaining these options to his clients in this “already extraordinary case.”

Read the article here.

Arsenault and a partner in his law firm, JR Whaley, are among a group of approximately 30 lawyers who are moving their clients’ claims through the oil spill fund.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Arsenault told the Journal’s Dionne Searcy.
The fund, which is administered by Ken Fienberg , and was set up by BP and the Obama administration, has already paid out $3.35 billion dollars to victims of the spill.

Victims of the oil spill are now deciding whether to opt for potentially quicker compensation through the oil spill fund, or to take their claims through the court system. Victims who seek compensation through the oil spill fund will be barred from filing a lawsuit, and may forfeit future damages that may be awarded by a court.

For many victims, waiting for a courtroom decision may not be possible. Daniel Becnel, a lawyer in Arsenault’s group, explained that many victims need compensation now to avert financial ruin and may not be capable of waiting for a result through litigation.

The accident happened approximately 20 miles southeast of New Orleans on Louisiana Delta Oil Co.’s Grosse Tete work-over rig.

The gas well was inactive at the time of the fire, and the Coast Guard is not reporting pollution at this time.

Reports indicate that all thirteen people working on the rig have been accounted for. It appears that the rig is still on fire. Additional information was not yet available. As information is received regarding this explosion, we will update our website. Please check back frequently.

Emerging news reports from the Times Picayune are now reporting that  the rig was “an oil and gas production rig located in 340 feet of water.” Additionally, the article indicated one injury has been reported and “twelve of the workers are in immersion suits, designed to protect them from hypothermia.”

Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi appointed a 38 person commission to deal with Mississippi’s oil dilemma. Seeking long-term recovery as opposed to short-term solutions, the Governor has accumulated a highly knowledgeable team of researchers, business experts, and industry specialists.

Jay Grimes with the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gulf Coast Research Lab was quoted by Gulf Live as stating:

“My concern is what is the fate and effects of the oil in Mississippi. I feel, and my colleagues at the lab agree, that we need to take a look at the toxicity of the oil and of the dispersed oil. We need to test the immediate toxicity and the long-term toxicity’s effect on all forms of marine life.” 

Other individuals who will also serve on the committee include Co-Chairs William Walker (Mississippi Department of Marine Resources) and Trudy Fisher (Mississippi DEQ) as well as Tom Becker, of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Charter Boats Association; LaDon Swann, director of the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium; Ron Peresich, chairman of the Gulf Coast Business Council; Jerry St. Pé, Jackson County businessman; Chuck Benvenutti, Hancock County businessman; Steve Renfroe, of Chevron’s Pascagoula refinery; and Sen. Tommy Moffatt; and others. 

Gulf Live quoted the governor as saying:

“In the wake of the oil spill, we have an opportunity to address any number of issues in a comprehensive way, not just for right now, but into the future…This commission will have a wide charge, from preliminarily determining the impact of the oil spill on Gulf ecosystems to addressing concerns about seafood safety to improving hurricane protection and habitat restoration.”

In its recent  Oil Spill Surveillance Summary report, the DHH indicated that the most common complaints included exposure to odors/fumes, skin contact with contaminated water or objects, heat stress and lacerations/fractures associated with the clean-up and containment efforts.  The illnesses and injuries were reported to hospital emergency departments, outpatient clinics, physicians’ offices and the Louisiana Poison Center.  These cases were monitored by the DHH’s Office of Public Health and Section on Environmental Epidemiology & Toxicology. The most frequently reported symptoms were headache, dizziness, neaseau, vomiting, weakness/fatigue and upper respiratory irration. 

While it looks the the devastating oil leak will finally be stopped permanently, residents of the Gulf Coast are just now starting to see the long-term effects associated with this environmental disaster.  It is troubling to see the effects of the oil spill on our coast, waters, wildlife, human health and way of life.  We will continue to follow this story, so stay tuned.

Prof. Galligan, who recently co-chaired the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Gulf Coast Oil Spill Symposium with Neblett, Beard & Arsenault’s founder, Attorney Richard J. Arsenault, has written an editorial urging the passage of this bill:

Now is the Time to Change the Law
By: Professor Tom Galligan

The law ought to be fair, consistent, and up to date. It ought to make people whole for their losses and compensate them for the real damage they suffer. Now, in wrongful death cases on the high seas, it does none of those things but the U.S. Senate currently has a chance to fix this defect and it is time to do so.

11 men died in the initial explosion on the Deepwater Horizon. Their survivors have appeared before several Congressional committees and explained why the law today is unfair. It is unjust because neither the Jones Act nor the Death on the High Seas Act (DOHSA) – the maritime statutes that define survivors’ rights in the Deepwater Horizon tragedy-provide “loss of society” damages to compensate for the lost comfort, care and companionship of their deceased loved ones. The majority of American jurisdictions today do recognize these rights in wrongful death cases, but not under these maritime laws, both passed in 1920.

All of the survivors-two wives, a father, and a brother–eloquently described the terrible emotional loss they have suffered and the devastating effects of the deaths of their loved ones on the children of the deceased workers. Yet today, none of those very real emotional damages are recoverable under the applicable law. All that is recoverable is purely economic damage, such as loss of support, loss of services, and funeral expenses. But, the law treats the relationship itself—the essence of the connection between people—as worthless. In terms of the love and care lost, the lost life is treated as if it has no value. That fact is morally offensive and logically incoherent. Loss of society damages are, as noted, available in most tort cases on land and are available for the survivors of those killed in high season commercial aviation disasters. The law should be the same for all and it is time to make it so.

President Obama has met with some of the survivors and pledged his support, and Congress has held hearings to discern whether current laws adequately protect the victims of this catastrophe. On July 1, the House passed a bill, Rep. Conyers’ H.R. 5503, that would allow the survivors of someone killed on the high seas to recover loss of society damages. Now, the Senate can and should do the same thing. Legislation is already pending in the Senate that would implement the necessary change, Senator Patrick Leahy’s S. 3463. It is time to pass that law.

I have been honored to have appeared with the survivors before the U.S. House and Senate Judicial Committees and the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. No one at those hearings spoke against the changes described above. Now, I have heard that there are companies who claim that allowing recovery of loss of society damages might increase the cost of doing business for some. If this change in the law would now force maritime actors to have to consider the real emotional costs of deaths they cause, so be it. Perhaps if they were forced to do so, the world would be a safer place and none of this would ever have happened.

The bill that passed in the House amended the decades-old Death on the High Seas Act to allow families of the deceased oil workers to recover non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, loss of care, comfort and companionship. The bill, known as the Securing Protections for the Injured from Limitations on Liability (SPILL) Act, passed the House by a voice vote. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce oppose the change, arguing that it would expose maritime industries to new costs and legal burdens. The SPILL Act also updated another maritime liability law by repealing the Limitation of Liability Act, the 1851 law that allows Transocean to limit its liability to the worth of its now-destroyed rig. The bill now moves to the Senate.

• Amend the Death on the High Seas Act (dating from 1920) to permit recovery of non-pecuniary damages (e.g., pain and suffering and loss of care, comfort, and companionship) by the decedent’s family, as well as standardizing the geographic threshold for its application, and permitting surviving family members to bring suit directly rather than through a personal representative.
• Amend the Jones Act (dating from 1920) to permit recovery of non-pecuniary damages by the families of seamen who are killed.
• Repeal the outmoded Limitation on Liability Act (dating from 1851) which limits the liability of vessel owners to the value of the vessel and its cargo.
• Clarify the class action rules so that impacted States can seek effective legal remedies in their own courts.
• Render unenforceable restrictions on disclosing information about offshore spills of oil and other pollutants.
• Strengthen bankruptcy rules to prevent corporations responsible for widespread damages under the Oil Pollution Act from seeking to sever their assets from the legal liabilities they owe to innocent victims.
• Apply these changes to pending and future legal claims.

This legislation allows a spouse, child and/or parent to potentially recover “non-pecuniary” damages in maritime death cases. Currently, the law only permits pecuniary damages and pre-death pain and suffering, if any, as legal elements of recovery. This change is necessary to bring these types of claims in line with modern day recognition of injuries associated with the loss of a close family member.

Since then, the Interior Department has stopped approving any new drilling permits and suspended drilling at 33 wells already exploring for oil in the gulf. The government has said it needs time to do a thorough safety evaluation to ensure that disasters like BP’s blast don’t happen again. But Hornbeck Offshore Services, an oil services company based in Louisiana, filed a lawsuit challenging the moratorium. It argues that there’s no evidence that continued drilling poses any threat of future oil spills, and that halting such operations could cost Louisiana thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost wages. The lawsuit is backed by oil companies, Louisiana’s governor and other state officials.

U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman heard testimony from both sides in a two-hour hearing on Monday. He ruled that the Interior Department failed to give adequate reasoning for the moratorium, according to the AP, saying the department assumes that because one rig failed, all companies and rigs doing deep-water drilling are an imminent danger.

“The safeguards and regulations in place on April 20 did not create a sufficient margin of safety,” Justice Department stated at the hearing Monday.

Asked by Feldman why the U.S. government didn’t implement a similar moratorium after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, the Government called the Deepwater Horizon blowout a “game changer.”

Feldman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, has called the case by Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC and other marine service and shipyard companies against the Interior Department a matter “of national significance” and that the case will proceed on a “highly expedited basis.” A federal judge from Houston with a similar case brought June 17 by rig operator Diamond Offshore Co. listened by telephone.

Government lawyers said the Interior Department has demonstrated industry regulators need more time to study the risks of deepwater drilling and identify ways to make it safer. “The safeguards and regulations in place on April 20 did not create a sufficient margin of safety,” argued the Justice Department.

During Monday’s hearing, Feldman asked a government lawyer why the Interior Department decided to suspend deepwater drilling after the rig explosion when it didn’t bar oil tankers from Alaskan waters after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 or take similar actions in the wake of other industrial accidents. “The Deepwater Horizon blowout was a game-changer,” said the Government. “It really illustrates the risks that are inherent in deepwater drilling.”

The U.K.-based oil company said it is able to generate $30 billion in cash flow from its global operations above and beyond the Gulf oil spill costs. BP said it will create the $20 billion claims fund over the next three and a half years. BP will pay $3 billion into the fund in the third quarter of this year, and another $2 billion in the fourth quarter. These will be followed by payments of $1.25 billion per quarter until the $20 billion has been paid in, BP said. The fund will be available to satisfy legitimate claims including natural resource damages and state and local response costs. Fines and penalties will be excluded from the fund and paid separately, BP said.

BP agreed to set aside an additional $100 million for workers who lost their jobs as a result of a deep-water drilling moratorium imposed by the President. The size of the spill was again revised upward, as the latest government figures released estimate 35,000 to 60,000 barrels is gushing from the mile-deep well in the Gulf daily. The rate of oil spewing out daily was originally estimated in April at 1,000 barrels and has been updated several times.

These will be followed by payments of $1.25 billion per quarter until the $20 billion has been paid in, BP said. The fund will be available to satisfy legitimate claims including natural resource damages and state and local response costs. Fines and penalties will be excluded from the fund and paid separately, BP said. BP agreed to set aside an additional $100 million for workers who lost their jobs as a result of a deep-water drilling moratorium imposed by The President. The size of the spill was again revised upward, as the latest government figures released estimate 35,000 to 60,000 barrels is gushing from the mile-deep well in the Gulf daily. The rate of oil spewing out daily was originally estimated in April at 1,000 barrels and has been updated several times.

Keynote Speaker James Carville

Professor Tom C. Galligan, President of Colby-Sawyer College, and Attorney Richard J. Arsenault, Founding Partner of Neblett, Beard & Arsenault, will co-chair the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Gulf Coast Oil Symposium on May 25th at the Sheraton in New Orleans, LA.

The conference was coordinated to address the complex issues associated with the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Galligan and Arsenault have assembled a talented faculty, which include some of the most prominent attorneys in the country. The keynote speaker will be world renowned author, professor and political strategist, James Carville.

The symposium aims to shed light on the complex legal issues involved in this disaster, including governmental claims, potential claimants and recoverable damages, the Limitation of Liability Act, the types and qualifications of experts, Coast Guard and MMS investigations, and the status of multi-district litigation, as well as the impact on the environment and economy of the region.

Professor Tom Galligan, Jr. is currently the President of Colby-Sawyer College. He served as the Dean of the University of Tennessee College of Law from 1998-2006 and was a professor at LSU Law School from 1986-1998. He has published and spoken extensively on maritime law and his scholarship has been cited by the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Louisiana Supreme Court, other courts, and commentators. His co-authored scholarship with Professor Frank L. Maraist has been honored by the Tulane Law Review and the Louisiana Bar Journal.

Richard J. Arsenault has been involved in maritime litigation for 30 years. He is a former Chair of the AAJ Admiralty Law Section and has chaired the Louisiana Bar Association’s Annual Admiralty Symposium since its inception 17 years ago. He has published and spoken extensively on maritime topics and his scholarship has appeared in various publications including the Maritime Lawyer, the Maritime Law Reporter, Trial Magazine and the La. Bar Journal. Arsenault is the current Chair of the Louisiana Bar Association’s Section on Insurance, Negligence, Worker’s Compensation and Admiralty Law. Twice a year, Arsenault, Professor Galligan and several Federal Court Judges participate in panel presentations designed to review recent maritime developments. Arsenault also serves on the LSU Law School Trial Advocacy Faculty.

Congressional investigators have found that the BOP suffered from leaking hydraulic fluid, a dead battery and an inadequate design. “The answer is no,” Salazar said in response to a pointed question from about the government standards on the device. “I think there is additional work that should have been done on blowout preventers.”

Blowout preventers are massive devices that sit at the top of a well and are designed to slam pipes shut in the event of an emergency. However, they cannot shear thick sections of pipe.

A House investigation found last week that the device on the Deepwater Horizon suffered from multiple problems that may have prevented it from working correctly a mile beneath the Gulf. The U.S. Government is now a defendant in the oil spill litigation. The National Law Journal reports, “As lawsuits over the BP oil spill mount, a group of conservationists and fishermen have a new target: the US Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service. A lawsuit has been filed in federal court against the federal agency.

The suit — Gulf Restoration Network and Sierra Club v. Salazar — charges that the agency violated federal law by exempting oil companies that drill in the Gulf of Mexico from disclosing blowout and worst-case spill scenarios as well as plans for dealing with them before approving the companies’ offshore drilling plans.