Judge Pushes Back Gulf Oil Spill Trial Four Months
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, who presides over 300 lawsuits stemming from the April BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, has rescheduled the start of the trial for Feb. 27, 2012.
The four month delay is in response to a request for more time to prepare by Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), Transocean (NYSE: RIG), Cameron International (NYSE: CAM) and other companies who are on trial to establish their percentage of liability in the disaster.
The plantiffs are accusing the companies of stall tactics but Barbier justified the delay stating the testing of the rig's failed blowout preventer would not be completed until February 2011. He also ruled that lawsuits filed by district attorneys must be heard in a federal court.
"Under BP's proposed time line, this court will be lucky to see even a personal injury or wrongful death damage trial before 2013," plaintiffs' attorneys wrote in a court filing Wednesday.
Read the full article Yahoo Finance: Judge postpones trial in Gulf oil spill cases
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Joseph Baker is a freelance writer living in Vancouver BC. His areas of focus include renewable energy, sustainability and climate change.
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