Sep, 2012 — A furniture store qualified for $150k; a veterinarian will receive $80k; a construction company is eligible for $5 million. They aren’t Gulf-front, fishing, or tourism, and not what most people think of as a typical business hurt by the April 2010 BP Oil Spill, but under the terms of the BP Settlement Agreement, they are eligible for compensation for financial losses.
Under the terms of the BP Settlement Agreement, reached in principle in March 2012, any business in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and the west coast of Florida may be eligible for compensation for financial losses. Generally speaking, any business in one of these areas that had an aggregate revenue decrease after the oil spill of April 2010 and later had an aggregate revenue increase may qualify for compensation. This is true even if they don’t think the loss came from the oil spill.
Examples of recent Beasley Allen cases that have qualified for payment are:
- Gas Station / Convenience Store – $500,000
- Floor Covering business – $220,000
- Retail Printing business – $196,000
- Bar / Pub – $180,000
- Lawn Care business – $115,000
- Veterinarian – $80,000
On June 4, the new court-supervised claims center opened. Jones said people who have already submitted a claim will not have to re-file any paperwork, and new claims also can be filed. As a class action, there are very few exclusions to businesses that can make a claim, even if they are not located along the Gulf Coast. There is no cap on the settlement. Claims may be filed through April 2014.
Beasley Allen attorney Rhon Jones served on the Plaintiffs Steering Committee for the consolidated litigation. “You’re really looking at your profit and loss statements and to determine if you qualify, it’s revenue-based,” Jones explains. “To boil it down, you’re looking for a 15 percent drop over a certain three-month period in 2010, and you’re looking for a 10 percent increase in your revenues over the same three months in 2011.”
People throughout the region were affected when BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010. The Macondo well was damaged, and oil spilled into the Gulf for months before the well could be capped.
Thousands of people filed claims seeking relief from damages as a result. The claims were consolidated in New Orleans under U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier.
The settlement, which was reached within three years of the spill, will compensate victims for private economic losses, property damage, and medical claims stemming from the Gulf oil spill. Jones calls the settlement the “greatest good for the most people on the coast.”
He says, “I think we had a real obligation to our clients to try to work as quickly as we could and as efficiently as we could, and I’m just so pleased we’re able to get results, compensation for many businesses and many individuals in pretty short order after the spill.”
For more information, watch Rhon Jones as he discusses the BP Settlement with Gibson Vance, host of the weekly Beasley Allen Report.
The above-listed recoveries are example recoveries only and are based on client-specific information and records. Beasley Allen makes no guarantee that claims will receive a specific recovery, or any recovery at all.
Related News:
‘Irreparable harm’: Charles Maldonado on why BP is trying to undo a claims settlement it negotiated last year (Gambit, March 26, 2013)
