Brent Coon & Associates Files Suit Against BP over Gulf Oil Spill

April 22nd, 2013 - Houston, Tx - Brent Coon & Associates has filed multiple lawsuits against BP and other defendants on behalf of over 10,000 of its clients who were victims of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion and the ensuing Gulf oil spill in April 2010. The lawsuits, which were filed in several different jurisdictions along the Gulf Coast, also name Transocean and Halliburton as defendants.

Gulf Oil Spill Trial Begins

Originally posted by Corey Olson - KTRH - February 26th, 2013

Nearly three years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the trial is underway to determine exactly who is responsible for the disaster, and how much that responsibility will cost.  The defendants are BP, Transocean, and Halliburton. Attorney Brent Coon has handled many cases stemming from the spill and is watching this trial closely.  He tells KTRH that there is plenty of responsibility to go around. "BP owned the oil concession for drilling this oil, Transocean was the rig owner, and Halliburton made the cement that was to plug the well," he explains.  Nevertheless, BP has been the big name attached to the disaster, and if Monday's opening arguments are any indication, the other defendants want to keep it that way.  "To no surprise, most of the parties in the case, including Halliburton and Transocean, are trying to point the fingers at BP," says Coon.

BP Spill Settlement Approval Appealed by Opt-Out Victims

Thousands of individuals and businesses that sued BP Plc (BP/) over damage from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill appealed a judge’s approval of a $7.8 billion class-action settlement.

Brent Coon, a lawyer for plaintiffs who opted out of the settlement, said in a filing yesterday in federal court in New Orleans that he’s appealing the judge’s orders approving the settlement.

Spill claimants may get second chance

BP and some plaintiffs' lawyers in the litigation over the 2010 Gulf oil spill are asking a federal judge to give claimants who asked to leave a proposed class-action settlement another chance to participate.

BP supervisors are ‘scapegoats,’ defense says

BP’s former rig supervisors Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine are the mystery men of the Deepwater Horizon oil drilling disaster that killed 11 workers and triggered the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Judge must decide who can withdraw from spill deal

Thousands of Gulf Coast residents claiming economic or health damages from the 2010 oil spill have told a New Orleans federal judge they don’t want to participate in a class action settlement, and now he has to decide which ones he’ll allow to opt out.

BP Oil Spill – Time to Settle?

BEAUMONT, Texas - It's decision time for many whose livelihoods were affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. Private claims of economic hardship against oil giant British Petroleum (BP) will become part of a class-action settlement process, with participants likely forfeiting the right to sue later on their own unless they formally opt out of the deal this week.

BP Spill Settlement Opt-Outs to Increase With Deadline Today

Lawyers for as many as 10,000 potential plaintiffs pursuing claims over BP Plc (BP/)’s 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill said their clients today will opt out or reject the company’s $7.8 billion settlement reached in March.

“I’m not trying to hold the settlement hostage, but there are too many technical problems” with the claims process, said Houston-based lawyer Brent Coon, who said he will opt out as many as 5,000 clients today. The process set up after the agreement was reached has been “slow, arduous and unexplainable,” Coon said.

Alaskans' pain set stage for Gulf spill victims' gain

As a federal judge considers whether to approve a huge civil settlement in the 2010 oil spill, thousands of Gulf Coast residents owe their day in court to a law that arose from the Exxon Valdez disaster 23 years ago.

BP Urges Judge to Approve $7.8 Billion Oil-Spill Accord

BP Plc (BP/) urged a federal judge to approve a proposed $7.8 billion settlement of thousands of claims by coastal businesses and property owners who sued over economic damages from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Alabamans should claim more BP spill money - state official

Originally posted by Verna Gates - Reuters - June 5th, 2013

(Reuters) - Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange said the $500 million paid by BP Plc in compensation in the state for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill was just the "tip of the iceberg" and called for more claims, believing Alabama had not received a fair share of the $3 billion in total payouts so far.

Texas joins other Gulf states in suing BP for environmental damage

Originally posted by Harry Weber - Houston Chronicle - May 17, 2013

Texas on Friday joined other Gulf Coast  states suing BP for environmental damage caused by the 2010  oil spill.

Texas’ suit seeks natural resources damages, economic damages and civil penalties. Louisiana and Alabama sued initially, while Florida and Mississippi sued last month around the three-year anniversary of the disaster.

The Deepwater Horizon Trial: A Headache for Obama?

Originally posted by Bruce Thompson - American Thinker - April 27, 2013

Just over three years after the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, Halliburton has finally decided to face the music and increase its reserves for payment of civil damages by $1 billion.

Things did not go well for them in the seven weeks of testimony just concluded in federal court in New Orleans.  They were caught hiding samples of the exact cement mixture that failed, which they had been ordered by the court to preserve.  They had to admit that the cement formulation used "had a low probability of success."

Empty nets in Louisiana three years after the spill

Originally posted by Matt Smith - CNN - April 29, 2013

Yscloskey, Louisiana (CNN) -- On his dock along the banks of Bayou Yscloskey, Darren Stander makes the pelicans dance.

More than a dozen of the birds have landed or hopped onto the dock, where Stander takes in crabs and oysters from the fishermen who work the bayou and Lake Borgne at its mouth. The pelicans rock back and forth, beaks rising and falling, as he waves a bait fish over their heads.

Transocean CEO says firm had safety problems before Gulf oil spill

Originally posted by Simone Sebastian - Houston Chronicle - March 19, 2013

NEW ORLEANS — Swiss drilling contractor Transocean knew it had a high-potential safety problem across its company months before the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill because it had  suffered four rig deaths in a span of just 92 days, the company’s chief executive officer testified Tuesday.

CEO Steve Newman said at a civil trial over the Gulf disaster in federal court in New Orleans that he sent a memo to staff in fall 2009 that said he was concerned about the increasing number of major incidents. He testified that Transocean needed to work quickly and decisively to fix the problem and “stop the fatalities.”

Gulf Oil Spill Trial Begins

Originally posted by Corey Olson - KTRH - February 26th, 2013

Nearly three years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the trial is underway to determine exactly who is responsible for the disaster, and how much that responsibility will cost.  The defendants are BP, Transocean, and Halliburton. Attorney Brent Coon has handled many cases stemming from the spill and is watching this trial closely.  He tells KTRH that there is plenty of responsibility to go around. "BP owned the oil concession for drilling this oil, Transocean was the rig owner, and Halliburton made the cement that was to plug the well," he explains.  Nevertheless, BP has been the big name attached to the disaster, and if Monday's opening arguments are any indication, the other defendants want to keep it that way.  "To no surprise, most of the parties in the case, including Halliburton and Transocean, are trying to point the fingers at BP," says Coon.

Guilty: Transocean convicted in Gulf of Mexico oil spill

Originally posted by Harry Weber - Houston Chronicle - February 14, 2013

NEW ORLEANS – The owner of the deep-water rig that exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico nearly three years ago after an undersea well blew out is now the second company to be convicted of a crime stemming from the deadly disaster.

Transocean to pay $1.4B fine for Gulf oil spill

Transocean, the drilling company that owned the oil rig implicated in the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, will plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act and pay a $1.4 billion fine, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Spill claimants may get second chance

BP and some plaintiffs' lawyers in the litigation over the 2010 Gulf oil spill are asking a federal judge to give claimants who asked to leave a proposed class-action settlement another chance to participate.

Is the BP Criminal Settlement Enough?

BP and the Department of Justice announced on Thursday that they had reached an agreement on a record fine stemming from criminal charges related to the 2009 Deepwater Horizon disaster.