LOS ANGELES -- The largest oil spill in U.S. history has unleashed a gusher of at least 250 class-action lawsuits that could eventually encompass millions of victims in a legal battle expected to stretch on for decades.
The first step in what many experts predict will be among the most complex environmental cases to hit the U.S. courts begins today when an army of attorneys converges on Boise, Idaho, where a federal panel will begin to decide what judge or judges will oversee the cases and where they will be initially heard.
"The stakes here are tremendous," said Georgene Vairo, a Loyola Law School professor of civil procedure and expert in complex litigation. "For a single-event type of incident this is the biggest we've ever seen, just in the range of claims, the government and private party actions, the cost of claims, the insurance aspects. It's just the whole nine yards. It's huge."
Since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, hundreds of trial attorneys have descended on Gulf of Mexico states - some garnering clients by advertising on billboards and holding town hall meetings. They have filed scores of lawsuits seeking damages expected to reach into the double-digit billions from BP, Transocean and other defendant companies.
The vast majority of the damage suits have been filed by fishermen, charter operators, restaurants and property owners claiming financial losses after the disaster shut down fisheries and pummeled coastal tourism. One suit seeks payouts for the diminished property values of every land, home and business owner within five blocks of the Gulf shore.
Families of the 11 men killed in the disaster have filed wrongful-death suits. Seafood processors and marinas have sued over their dwindling revenues.
Complaints have flooded in from afar as well. An Ohio-based investment fund hit by falling oil industry share values is seeking damages. And a group of S.C. beach hoteliers has filed suit, claiming they are suffering from a spate of cancellations because tourists fear the oil will reach around to the East Coast.
Environmental defense groups have sued on behalf of dead and injured wildlife. Veteran litigators have gone as far as to target BP with civil RICO actions, accusing them of negligence so willful that they should be subjected to the steep penalties of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
"This spill has caused tremendous fallout in the legal arena," said New Orleans environmental attorney Allan Kanner, noting that the scope of the accident already far eclipses that of the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska that led to more than 20 years of courtroom wrangling.
The panel of seven federal judges, known formally as the U.S .Judicial Panel for Multi-District Litigation, is responsible for sorting through the mountain of legal actions and will hear the parties' arguments about where all pretrial proceedings should be consolidated. The assignments are expected to be decided within a few weeks.
The panel often consolidates litigation from mass-casualty accidents such as plane crashes and train wrecks, or victims alleging a common cause of their problems, such as those suffering from asbestos exposure. The panel recently assigned all the lawsuits brought against Toyota alleging sudden acceleration and other defects to a judge in Southern California.
The judge or judges selected to handle the spill cases will have tremendous power. The judge will appoint a steering committee of plaintiffs' lawyers from among all who have filed suit. A defense lawyers' panel will also be named.
The appointed jurists will decide important fact-finding and discovery issues, determine whether the cases can even move forward, vet the parties' expert witnesses and rule on the admissibility of evidence. A key objective will be to press the parties to settle rather than go to trial.
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