Litigation

Public Citizen, Petroleum Critics, Political Campaigns

By Carter Wood

Sundry and various ...

A recent piece of perfervid direct mail from Public Citizen demands criminal prosecution of BP executives, calling the company "a reckless criminal recidivist corporation. With a long rap sheet." Read the letter here. The litigation will continue for years, but is the outrage over the Deepwater Horizon accident sustainable as a fundraiser without new photos of begrimed shore birds?

In its selection of issues and amped-up outrage, Public Citizen's letter reads like it could have come from the American Association of Justice, the trial lawyers' lobby. Voila, here are the pages from the AAJ's 3rd quarter lobbying disclosure form that list its activities on maritime and environmental liability issues.

A great source of intelligence and commentary on the Gulf of Mexico litigation is the Jere Beasley Report, the blog and monthly report of the Alabama avocat grise and leader of the Beasley Allen firm. Here's the section devoted to the drilling accident.

One issue in the Alabama attorney general's race is whether the state should hire outside counsel to pursue its legal claims against BP . Judging from the comments in this campaign profile, Democrat James Anderson appears more willing than the Republican candidate, Luther Strange, to farm out litigation to the private sector. A poll commissioned by the state's major newspaper released Sundayreports that Strange was supported by 47 percent of potential voters against 33 percent for Anderson. Strange supports the states' lawsuit against the federal health care law, Anderson does not.

Los Angeles Times, Oct. 21, "3 environmental groups sue BP over gulf oil spill"

Full post as published by Point of Law on October 27, 2010 (boomark / email).