Louisiana residents who filed lawsuits against their lawyers alleging mishandled claims for damages in connection with the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill have requested that the Fifth Circuit give a rehearing to them. And the plaintiffs are seeking to revive a settlement agreement that was nullified by an appellate court panel, and they’re accusing their attorneys of bungling claims related to the disaster.
The plaintiffs took the case to the Fifth Circuit on Monday after a district court axed an earlier settlement. That argument is based on whether a global settlement agreement was reached or not and the plaintiffs claim their attorneys as well as insurance companies failed to file certain claims after losing out compensation from the Deepwater Horizon Economic Claim Program.
BP Spill Malpractice Revival Request : A Settlement Dispute
The legal malpractice suits were filed as early as May 2019, accusing attorneys of inflating and pressuring settlements to the point that Floyd wrongfully forfeited money she was due. The litigation was then centralized in the U.S.District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and assigned to Judge Wendy B. Vitter, also a federal judge. By December 2022, the conversations during negotiations to settle it with U.S. Magistrate Judge Janis van Meerveld we’re happening in efforts avoid a trial scheduled for May 2023.