Consumer Law

Feinberg on 60 Minutes ? Confusing BP With 9/11

By Joe Consumer

Last night, 60 Minutes profiled Ken Feinberg, who was hired by BP to administer the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF).  As the piece tried to point out, despite promises of a quick, fair and generous process, Feinberg?s system has been anything but.  Emergency relief applicants, many of whom are struggling to pay their bills, have not been paid anything close to what they need (as we?ve noted in prior coverage - and you can watch the actual clip of Lafitte shrimper William Lorenzo, who told Mr. Feinberg, ?Can we take whoever programmed this system for the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, take them down to the swamp, drop them off for 10 days and let them wait on us to go pick them up to see how it feels to keep waiting.?)

But while the piece helped show the frustration with this claims process, I was pretty annoyed by Feinberg?s statement comparing this situation with the 9/11 victims compensation fund, which he administered and made him somewhat famous:

It's a free country. If you wanna come into the fund, with all the benefits of the fund, come on in. You're welcome. We'll give you a fair shake. We'll process your claim. We'll pay what you're due. If you don't like what we're paying you, if you think we're nickel and diming you, if you think we're not being fair, opt out and go the other route. Now, in 9/11, 97 percent of all eligible claimants entered the fund. Only 94 people out of 3,000 decided to litigate.

Gosh, that comparison should never be made!  9/11 was a terrorist attack.  The only corporate wrongdoers who might have been sued in most cases (due to lax security) were the airlines and securities firms, but they immediately ran to Congress and got immunity!  See the "Air Transportation Safety and System Stabilization act of 2001."  That?s why Congress set up the fund. 

In the case of the Deepwater oil rig explosion and spill, we have three multinational corporations - BP, Transocean and Halliburton ? who together caused one of the worst disasters in the history of the petroleum industry.  They make billions and billions in profits each year, and are trying to escape responsibility for what they?ve done.  Litigation may be the only answer here. 

And here's one more difference between the BP and 9/11 funds.  During the 9/11 claims process, Feinberg encouraged claimants to use attorneys to assist them, to find documentation and fight for what they were due.  With the much-criticized BP fund, Feinberg has been openly hostile to attorneys' participation - great for his employer, BP; not so great for those in need. As the New York Times noted over the weekend:

Some plaintiffs? lawyers are rankled by complaints about claims because they lack documentation. Stephen J. Herman, a New Orleans lawyer, called it ?kind of ironic? to have Mr. Feinberg complaining about lack of documentation when he all but discouraged people from using lawyers to pursue their claims.

?If you?d had lawyers helping people fill out their claims forms, you?d probably have better documentation,? he said.

Nothing is simple, for sure.  Check out the Alliance for Justice?s new short film, Crude Justice, which explores some of these issues.   60 Minutes is here.  (If the clip isn't working for you, go here)

Full post as published by ThePopTort on October 04, 2010 (boomark / email).