The lawsuit tally is already over 100, spanning at least seven different courts in five states, and that's just civil suits. The criminal investigation is ongoing, as are BP's CYA efforts. Their latest comes in the form of venue shopping:
oil giant BP is asking the courts to place every pre-trial issue in the hands of a single federal judge in Houston.
...Legal experts say the request for a single judge, while not unprecedented, is unusual, and they surmise BP is seeking rulings from a judge well-versed in the company's issues.
Edward Sherman, a law professor at Tulane University in New Orleans who has closely followed the BP legal maneuvers, said BP probably studied Hughes' past rulings and his caseload before suggesting he take the cases.
"Obviously, another factor is they would like to have a judge who understands their point of view," Sherman said.
Hughes is "well known as a competent judge," Sherman added.
Well known as a competent judge and even has a history of ruling against oil companies from time to time, so what's the problem? I don't care how impeccable a judge's integrity is; no defendant should ever get to choose their own judge, if you ask me. That's just wack. I mean, I can understand requesting Houston, since that's where BP's American headquarters are and some suits have already been filed there. But hand-picking your trial judge? Houston, we have a problem. As David Guest, environmental lawyer with Earthjustice who has fought a lot of pollution cases, put it, "I'm utterly horrified." Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, an assistant professor of law at Florida State University described BP's gambit as "blatant."
Shrewd lawyers often try to steer cases to judges viewed as potentially sympathetic to their arguments.
..."Sometimes they will ask for a judge by name," Burch said. "Other times, they are a bit wilier about what they'll ask for, so it looks less blatant."
Other lawyers were surprised that BP was seeking to select its own judge; in both state and federal courts, cases are typically assigned to judges randomly.
Several of the plaintiffs involved, though, have specifically requested their cases be handled in Louisiana. A panel of judges will let us know sometime in July if the lawsuits against BP will be consolidated and if so, on whose desk will it all land. That should prove very interesting, indeed; this is no light decision.
Most legal observers suspect the BP suits will be consolidated either in Houston — home to Transocean and Halliburton, the drilling contractors also facing scrutiny over the spill — or in New Orleans, the region now suffering the brunt of the oil spill's impact.
...If the outstanding claims against BP are set before Hughes, he will have considerable sway over how those cases are handled, deciding which lawyers will lead the case for the class of plaintiffs, and how the law should be applied. If the cases go to trial, they will be transferred back to their original courts.
This AP article even provides additional detail as to what this decision could ultimately mean:
The job would include such key pretrial decisions as certifying a large class of plaintiffs to seek damages, a potential multibillion-dollar settlement, whether to dismiss the cases and what documents BP and the other companies might be forced to produce in court.
So, yeah...no hand-picked judges, thanks. Let the system work how it works and assign the case(s) at random, as it usually is and should be done. Of course, that's looking problematic as well; the oil industries of the respective states didn't develop in a vacuum and as it turns out, there are an awful lot of judges in the region with ties to the industry.
More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.
Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean.
...one federal judge in Texas is a member of Houston's Petroleum Club, an "exclusive, handsome club of, and for, men of the oil industry."
Can't you just see J.R. Ewing? Some of the judges have already taken the responsible step of recusing themselves from the proceedings. Others are selling their interests in BP, Halliburton and Transocean as I type.
Another New Orleans jurist, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, said in court Friday he is selling his oil and gas investments — which included Transocean and Halliburton — to avoid any perception of a conflict. Barbier is presiding over about 20 spill-related lawsuits and some attorneys are recommending that he be chosen to oversee all cases filed nationally.
So it looks like our choice is between BP's hand-picked judge in Houston and a New Orleans judge scrambling to sell his BP stock. Random, please. Though I do have a distinct preference the cases be tried in Louisiana; Texas hasn't felt the brunt of this the way Louisiana has. It only seems right that the trial happens there, where most of the people affected by this reside.
The situation has prompted some to suggest bringing a Judge down from New York to preside over the cases, U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin. She presided over the MBTE case brought against BP a decade or so ago. Even wackier: the panel to decide the fate of all these cases involving Texas, Louisiana and Florida will convene in Boise, Idaho of all places!
Mark your calendars and stock up on the popcorn -- July 29th is going to be interesting.