The lawyers gather to discuss the venue for the BP litigation overflow
Dozens of attorneys next week will gather before a panel of judges in an attempt to influence two key questions in the hundreds of lawsuits triggered by the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster: where the cases will be heard and who will preside over them.
The seven federal judges have been charged with deciding whether or how to consolidate the more than 200 federal civil suits filed by everyone from fishermen to injured rig workers against BP PLC, rig-owner Transocean Ltd. and other contractors tied to the spill.
In mass torts, where a friendly judge or jury pool can translate into hundreds of millions of dollars in verdicts, settlements and attorneys' fees, the setting is everything. That's particularly true in the oil litigation, as the spill has touched the lives of many in the Gulf—even the judge who could be chosen to oversee the cases.
"There's a huge amount of discretion that has to be exercised here," said Richard Nagareda, a law professor at Vanderbilt University. "All the lawyers involved are much more concerned about who that judge is than whether they have to fly wherever for the next five years."
The panel, which will meet more than 2,000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, in Boise, Idaho, will issue an order in the days following the July 29 hearing.
The diversity of the oil suits, which range from civil racketeering and personal-injury suits to claims from out-of-work shrimpers and owners of vacant hotels on the Gulf shore, may prompt the panel to choose several venues.
Many plaintiffs' attorneys are rooting for New Orleans, thought to be teeming with potential jurors who have been negatively affected by the spill. Defense attorneys want a judge in the oil-friendly city of Houston.
Some attorneys have requested a middle ground: Lafayette, La., close enough for easy access for witnesses and evidence collection but far enough from the spill's epicenter to avoid anti-oil vitriol.
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