That’s on top of any fees they collected from their individual clients, which could be up to 25 percent of their claims payouts. Herman’s law firm and that of his co-lead counsel, Jim Roy, were each awarded $87 million in fees from BP. That leaves claimants angry at both of them and pointing out that they are getting huge paydays out of the settlement. Garretson said he is simply implementing the settlement as it was written, but Herman said that’s not what the plaintiffs’ negotiating team intended.
Herman said the first of the court cases are now starting to be heard. The latest report from Garretson shows BP has not agreed to pay a single one of those claims in mediation. That meant people who got sick right away while cleaning up the oil during 20, but didn’t get an official doctor’s diagnosis until mid-2012 or later, were relegated to fighting separate cases, first in mediation with BP and then in court. Instead, the settlement defined “later-manifested physical conditions” as any conditions “diagnosed” after April 16, 2012, regardless of when the condition actually manifested, or appeared. The original medical claims settlement set aside a separate litigation process for what were called “Later-Manifested Physical Conditions.” Lead class plaintiffs’ attorney Steve Herman said that was supposed to refer to cancer and other conditions that don’t show up for years after the exposure. It all boiled down to the interpretation of two words: “manifested” and “diagnosed.” District Judge Carl Barbier made a decision - reluctantly, according to his comments from the bench - that rendered the settlement essentially moot for an estimated 20,000 claimants. If the medical settlement had played out the way plaintiffs expected in 2012, it might have paid more than $1 billion to tens of thousands of claimants.īut that was short-circuited in 2014, when U.S. That’s nearly twice as much as the $67.8 million he’s paid out to claimants over the last six years. The medical claims settlement administrator, Matt Garretson of Garretson Resolution Group in Cincinnati, estimated his fees from BP at $115 million to $120 million. Of the 22,700 medical claimants paid under the settlement so far, only 40 of them qualified for $60,700 payments available to those who could prove the spill caused them to have chronic illnesses. “On this 20th day of April, we reflect with sadness on those who lost their lives and we brush shoulders with those trying to stay alive as a result of the dispersants and the chemicals and the unprotected workers who worked to clean up our shores,” Honore said outside the federal courthouse. District Judge Carl Barbier to move long-stagnant medical claims forward. Russel Honore, delivered a petition with 25,000 signatures to the federal court in New Orleans on Friday, asking U.S. “There’s no justice here for people who actually worked, went out there to clean up their mess, and this is what we got for it: Not too good of a thank you, I don’t believe,” Barisich said.Ĭlaimants and their allies, led by Retired Lt.