(cross-posted at firefly-dreaming)
I guess most of us thought that the $20 billion fund to be set up by BP was to be used exclusively for payment of claims to coastal workers and businesses.
Michael Rozen, a partner in the Feinberg Rozen law firm, which is in charge of administering the fund. . . . .
“My present understanding is … that it is available for all manner of costs,” Rozen said, stressing that all legitimate claimants would be paid.
“Twenty billion maybe isn’t sufficient for the mass of stuff that’s aired, in which case BP will have to add more. If that should be the case, people still have their rights and remedies under law.”
. . . . . Robert Kennedy, an environmental lawyer and activist, told Reuters that it was another “subterfuge by BP.”
Toxic tort lawyers Mike Papantonio and Perry Weitz said news that the fund can have other purposes “amounts to a trick,” because the public expects all of the money to go to victims.
“Imagine if BP uses a significant portion for clean-up costs,” Weitz said at the spill litigation conference. “What’s left for the victims?” (emphasis mine)
