BP Oilspill damages claims to be heard in New Orleans venue a plus for plaintiffs
The national litigation over the Deepwater Horizon environmental disaster will stay in the Gulf Coast region, now that the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the country’s pending cases before U.S. District Judges Carl J. Barbier and Keith P. Ellison. As a result of the consolidation, all injury and economic damages claims related to the oil well blowout will be heard by Judge Barbier of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, while all investor lawsuits will be heard by Judge Ellison of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

Houston attorney Mark Lanier, founder of The Lanier Law Firm, filed the motion for national consolidation, and presented his case at a July 29 hearing in Boise, Idaho, before a panel of judges. Lanier argued that efficiency, economies of scale and fairness are achieved by some consolidation of cases against BP, Transocean, Cameron International, Halliburton Energy Services and others.

The New York Times reports: The choice of New Orleans is a significant defeat for BP and other companies being sued over the spill, which had asked the same panel to consolidate cases in Houston, where their headquarters are located — and where, plaintiffs had argued, they might find a friendlier legal environment.

Lanier tells the NY Times the decision to hear the cases in New Orleans bodes well for those negatively impacted by the oilspill: "[T]he decision by the panel was “logical,” but added, “BP is probably beside themselves.” In New Orleans, he said, “It will be very hard for them to find a jury that doesn’t want to hang ’em,” he said.

As for the investor cases consolidated in Houston, Lanier was quoted in a Bloomberg article saying: [T]he securities cases may have more value in the long run than the economic loss cases.”

The Lanier Law Firm represents hundreds of individuals and business owners in claims against the companies responsible for the April 20 explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, and Lanier was among the first attorneys in the nation to file suit against BP following the blast.