The state is waiting for a response from BP after Attorney General Pam Bondiinformed the energy giant that Floridians are not being offered a fair share of the pending settlement out of the 2010 spill.
In a letter to John Lynch Jr., the U.S. general counsel for BP America Inc., Bondi expressed concerns this past week that individuals and businesses in Florida are not being equally considered for compensation as with their counterparts in other Gulf Coast states.
Our review of the approximately 2,000 pages of settlement documents confirmed that while the entire states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were included in the proposed settlement, claimants in much of Florida were excluded, without explanation, Bondi wrote on Tuesday.
A joint filing boasts that the proposed settlement provides tourism businesses even 220 miles from the Louisiana coast over double their documented damages.
However, Floridians just a few miles from the coast are not mentioned, she noted.
John Lucas, press secretary for the attorney generals office, responded Friday that the office has yet to receive a response to the letter.
Contacted Friday, representatives from BP did not respond to requests for comment.
Bondi noted that the proposed $7.8 billion settlement only provides relief within 30 of Floridas 67 counties, yet the impact of the deadly spill was recorded in all but one of Floridas counties through the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.
The proposed settlement does not cover individuals and business claims in the remaining (36) counties but the GCCF made more than $100 million in payments to claimants from those counties, Bondi wrote. The GCCF payments are in addition to millions of dollars in payments BP made during the few months in 2010 when it operated a claims process.
While the spill only directly impacted a portion of the Panhandle in Florida, the entire state economically suffered as the national perception was that oil from the spill covered beaches across the Sunshine State, Chris Thompson, Visit Florida president, said Tuesday.
People literally thought there was oil on every beach in Florida, Thompson said. Six-to-8 percent of the people thought there was oil on Jacksonville Beach.
In April, Bondi had filed a statement of interest asking the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, to review the pending settlement in the April 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
In her letter to Lynch, Bondi suggested that BP should establish several claims offices in Florida:
Although many Floridians may choose to handle their claims over the phone or the Internet, others would benefit from physical claims locations staffed with helpful representatives who would review the paperwork, Bondi wrote. I am disappointed that BP has no plans to establish a physical presence in Florida.
Reach Jim Turner at jturner@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 215-9889.
Bondis letter to Lynch:
A focus of my administration has been on ensuring Floridas prompt recovery from the environmental and economic consequences of the Deepwater Horizon tragedy. Therefore, I remain troubled that the proposed settlement of certain individual and business claims asserted in the multi-district litigation (MDL) proceeding in New Orleans excludes most of Florida.
Our review of the approximately two thousand pages of settlement documents confirmed that while the entire states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi were included in the proposed settlement, claimants in much of Florida were excluded, without explanation. A joint filing boasts that the proposed settlement provides tourism businesses even 220 miles from the Louisiana coast over double their documented damages (Doc. 6266), but fails to mention that the settlement provides no benefit to Floridians located just a few miles from the coast.
A member of my staff contacted Mr. Holstein shortly after the proposed settlement was announced to inquire into the existence of an interim claims process, as required by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA), for Florida claimants that are either not covered by the proposed settlement or choose to timely opt out of its terms. Mr. Holstein indicated that BP planned to begin accepting interim claims from those claimants on or about June 4th but BP has made little effort to inform the public (of my office) of the status of its OPA claims process. It appears that the only source of information on the claims process is BPs website, with no media campaign.
With respect to my concerns that the proposed settlement does not cover all of Florida, reports from the now defunct Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) show that the GCCF paid claims filed by businesses and residents in 66 of Floridas 67 counties, yet the proposed settlement only covers claims from 30 counties. The proposed settlement does not cover individuals and business claims in the remaining counties but the GCCF made more than $100 million in payments to claimants from those counties. The GCCF payments are in addition to millions of dollars in payments BP made during the few months in 2010 when it operated a claims process.
I would have greater confidence in the proposed settlement if Floridians who fall outside of the settlements coverage received appropriate interim and final payments from BP. Since we have some time before the Court considers the proposed settlement for final approval, I am willing, for the time being, to give the new BP claims process an opportunity to prove itself. Accordingly, this office will monitor the new claims facility with the same scrutiny it has applied to the previous claims facilities and will follow up with you as necessary to ensure our citizens issues or concerns are promptly addressed. In the meantime, I offer several suggestions that are informed by the mistakes of the GCCF claims process.
First, the claims process should be easy for claimants to access and have several physical offices in Florida. Although many Floridians may choose to handle their claims over the phone or the internet, others would benefit from physical claims locations staffed with helpful representatives who would review the paperwork. I am disappointed that BP has no plans to establish a physical presence in Florida. However, it seems BP could operate out of the same claims office in Florida as Mr. Juneau and suggest you pursue that course of action.
Second the claims process should transparently and fairly value the claims. The effectiveness of the GCCFs claims process suffered due to the perception that claimants received widely divergent a wards for what were essentially identical claims. To avoid this, BP should develop and explain its protocol, formulas, and the analyses behind its various outcomes at the earliest possible opportunity. The transparency of the claims process will be a key to its level of success.
Third, the claims process should not rely on artificial limitation, such as geographic proximity to the oil spill or proximate causation concepts. Florida has a complex and interconnected economy and valid claims may be submitted from anywhere within the state, depending on the unique circumstances of each claim. Moreover, OPA rejects any proximate cause limitation, instead requiring BP to pay all claims that result from the oil spill.
Fourth, the claims process should resolve all interim claims well within the ninety (90) days permitted under OPA.
Fifth, BP should also implement other effective concepts that were successfully incorporated into the GCCF process as the suggestion of the Gulf Coast Attorneys General, such as: a single point-of-contact system; the ability for claimants to monitor the status of their claims; including the cost of accountants in any paid claims; and other ideas that increase the efficiency, responsiveness, and transparency of the process.
Finally, if BP intends to make any final payment offers, it is important that the payment offered by the facility recognize the level of continuing uncertainty over the long-term effects of the spill for different types of claimants. It would make sense that any final payment offers through BPs claims facility be at least as generous as what the claimants would receive if they were covered by the terms of the proposed settlement. BP might also want to consider establishing an appeals process for final payment offers, especially since such a process is available under the proposed settlement. In any event, the process of reviewing the proposed settlement has just begun and the way that BP operates its claims facility will be an important component of my offices ongoing review.
In the more than two years since the Deepwater Horizon tragedy, BP has repeatedly assured the people of the Gulf Coast of its legal and moral commitment to pay all legitimate claims. This oil spill has far-reaching effects on Florida and other Gulf Coast states, spanning from the fishing industry to the tourism industry and more. While I sincerely hope that BP properly compensates Florida individual and business claimants for the losses they have suffered, either through or outside of the proposed settlement terms, I will, if necessary, use the full power of my office to ensure that BP lives up to its responsibilities under the law.
