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BP Court Ruling Changes Settlement

In a ruling released yesterday, a federal appellate court reinterpreted the BP settlement agreement for Business Economic Loss claims related to the Oil Spill in the Gulf. While the appeals court disagreed with the lower court's support for the class administrator's calculation method of business losses according to cash-basis method of accounting, it will now be up to the trial court to further delineate the ruling. This will leave many claimants wondering how the ruling will affect their claims and could result in a further delay of payments.  Also at issue is whether this decision of the appellate court will be limited to certain businesses or will be applied to all claimants.

Law firms representing claimants will  continue to do all they can to get claims paid as soon as possible.  This has been an ongoing struggle for claimants since BP started, soon after the settlement, to thwart payments to claimants, even changing positions about the terms of the settlement agreement and appealing unsuccessfully many of the awards made to claimants. Having received the protection from lawsuits that the settlement provided, many wonder if BP now wants to keep its end of the bargain.

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