BP’s Costly Negligence

On September 4, 2014, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier held that the massive BP oil spill four years ago was the direct result of gross negligence or willful misconduct by BP. The ruling is significant as it paves the way for the U.S. government to impose nearly four times the amount of civil fines upon BP under the Clean Water Act. Judge Barbier also held that BP was 67% responsible, Transocean was 30% responsible, and Halliburton was 3% responsible for the incident.

Our firm has begun to see the fruits of Judge Barbier’s decision as we recently received a settlement offer from BP for one of our commercial clients. AHA hopes that BP will continue to negotiate good faith settlements for those affected by this disastrous event, bringing some sort of relief to those affected.