BP spill settlement promises fast payouts | NOLA.com:
by Rebecca Mowbray, The Times Picayune
"After reaching a deal Friday night to settle health and economic damage claims by individuals and businesses who were harmed by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP and plaintiff attorneys leading the litigation say the court-supervised claims process will begin immediately.
The plaintiffs say that the new process will be more transparent than the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Calculations will be made under formulas approved by the court, so people will be able to see exactly how their award was made and can dispute it if necessary. Few details are available about how the claims will be organized, but they take into account the types of damage and proximity to the coast. Each claim will be multiplied by a "risk transfer premium" that will differ by type of claims since no punitive damages were awarded by a court. The plaintiffs say that the risk transfer premium will ensure that their deal will pay more in compensation than what Feinberg did, but not enough details have been worked out from their agreement in principle to say what the multipliers are and how large the biggest multiplier is.
Gulf Coast Claims Facility Administrator Kenneth Feinberg, shown testifying before a U.S. Senate committee in 2011, will leave his post sometime this week.
Ken Feinberg, the administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which has been paying claims on behalf of BP using money from a $20 billion fund, will step aside sometime this week"
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