Judge orders temporary halt to oil spill payments

GULF OF MEXICO — Damage payments from the compensation fund for BP’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have been stopped temporarily because of a court order requiring a portion of settlement funds to be set aside to pay hundreds of lawyers working on behalf of claimants.

On Tuesday, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, an entity set up to handle claims against BP, said payments would be halted to comply with a Dec. 28 order by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier requiring 6 percent of payments go to plaintiffs’ lawyers.

A statement from the claims facility said the fund needs time to reformulate payments and comply with the order.

Barbier’s ruling throws a new wrinkle into a legal battle over fees and compensation.

Close this Window Bookmark and Share This Page

Save to Browser Favorites / Bookmarks

Print RSS Feed Ask backflip blinklist BlogBookmark Bloglines BlogMarks Blogsvine BuddyMarks BUMPzee! CiteULike co.mments

Connotea del.icio.us Digg diigo DotNetKicks DropJack dzone Facebook Fark Faves Feed Me Links Friendsite folkd.com

Furl Google Hugg Jeqq Kaboodle kirtsy linkaGoGo linkedin LinksMarker Ma.gnolia Mister Wong Mixx MySpace

MyWeb Netvouz Newsvine oneview OnlyWire PlugIM Propeller Reddit Rojo Segnalo Shoutwire Simpy Slashdot

Sphere Sphinn Spurl Squidoo StumbleUpon Technorati ThisNext Tumblr Twitter Webride Windows Live Yahoo!

Email This to a Friend

Copy HTML: 

 If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

More »