Administrator Sets New Claims Criteria for BP Class Action Settlement

The administrator of BP PLC’s estimated $7.8 billion Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement has proposed additional scrutiny of economic loss claims after U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier ordered early this month to suspend payments of some settlement payments.

BP has asked the appeals court to order a re-examination of the key terms of the class action settlement as they argued that Claims Administrator Patrick Juneau was approving payments based on what BP referred to as flawed interpretation of the agreement.

During that time, Juneau was given a week to provide “a declaration outlining the criteria that the Claims Administrator’s Office will use to determine whether… a claim is supported by sufficiently-matched, accrual-basis accounting.”

A new declaration filed by the administrator would call for taking a closer look on whether revenues and expenses match up and establishing a seven criteria that would trigger a further matching review before payment is approved.  Professional judgment will be exercised to determine whether a claim is sufficiently matched based upon the review of the information submitted to the claims administrator.

According to the declaration, the claim will proceed to determination and payment once it is confirmed and sufficiently matched after the review process.

It s expected that the detailed review to assess each claim would result to limited number of claims reaching the the next stage.

Detailed instructions on how to file a valid claim in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Class Action Settlement, see our Open Lawsuit Settlements section.

We have also covered this news here Judge Extends Deepwater Horizon Class Action Settlement Payment Freeze and here Judge Orders Suspension of Some BP Gulf Oil Spill Settlement Payments.

The plaintiffs’ steering committee includes Brian H. Barr of Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor PA; Matthew E. Lundy of Lundy Lundy Soileau & South LLP; and Robin L. Greenwald of Weitz & Luxenberg PC. The plaintiffs’ steering committee also includes attorneys from Herman Herman & Katz LLC and Domengeaux Wright Roy & Edwards LLC, among others.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill MDL is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, MDL No. 2179, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

UPDATE: On Jan. 10, 2014, the U.S. Appeals Court upheld approval of the Deepwater Horizon class action settlement, rejecting BP’s and objector’s arguments that the deal is unfair or that claims are being improperly paid.