I am not sure which law firm they will be hiring but I have yet to see a law firm charge billions in legal fees. $15 mil maybe even $30 mil tops and that is if this drags on for 20+ years. I believe the whole thing will end up costing 15-30 billion and I think it is more likely than not that it will be much closer to 15 than to 30.(I actually think it will be under 15 billion but to give a wide latitude for unknowns) The media sure does a great job of jacking a lot of people up over this and a lot of other crap
BP should simply pull out of the US market. They should fix the leak, pay the capped amount that they promised to clean up this mess and get the hell out of this market. Americans, as usually, totally overrate themselves and their importance, especially to BP. All its deposits are elsewhere in the world, it owns a huge portfolio, it has no difficulty to find plenty of consumers outside the US market. Seriously, this is turning into a farce of the first order. American politicians behave as if someone nuked the capital. What a joke. I am just so sick of American double standards, they can completely eradicate other parts of the world, poison it for decades, support corporate exploit-ism as long as it serves their own purpose, without paying a single penny, but when someone pees on a few hundred miles of shoreline they all go bazooka. What a bunch of hypocrites.
and I think you totally do not understand BP's legal obligations. They are not subject to punitive damages nor civil lawsuits, I am happy to stand corrected when this happens but for now this is all media and political BS coming out of the country that awards millions to fatties burning their lipo lips on a too hot coffee. The slight difference is that BP did not operate in territorial waters, which makes a huge difference in regards to legal obligations but I guess thats what a bunch of gluey lawyers like to contest.
"Double Standards" & "Hypocrites"... Almost All the Countries in the World (including their beautiful neighbor- Canada) would agree with you... but still "they" think they're "Right/Good" all the time but other countries .. no good/evil.
I dont care about good or evil. I care about people saying one thing and doing another. I am sick of hypocrites and people pretending they do good to the world but in reality they have a very different agenda. Thats the only thing that sickens me.
I am curious how you reach the conclusion that BP can rely on the liability cap and is not subject to civil lawsuits or punitive damages. The statuory liability cap has an exclusion for gross negligence, whch this surely was. BP has already promised to pay all legitimate claims, indicating that they are either giving away shareholders' money or recognize that they are subject to US courts for civil damages. There is also the small matter of the tens of billions they will be fined by the government for this leak under the Clean Water Act. The fine is based on the amount of oil released, and since it appears that BP has deliberately lowballed that number, they will be facing fines many times the initial estimates. Even that assumes they cap the well soon, which is highly unlikely.
how i come to the conclusion? a) as I pointed out the accident did not occur in US territorial waters, which has a lot of legal implications. b) let me ask you how you come to the conclusion this was "gross negligence"? This has not been established as a fact at all, no matter the speculation that is going around. c) BP agreed to pay legitimate claims, which surely does not include the 60 billion lawyers now mention for civil lawsuits. Ridiculous!!! d) It is anything but given that they are subject to US courts. As I said they are operating OUTSIDE of the American territory and they are not an American entity either. e) Why would the government charge tens of billions? For what? The estimate cost adds up to about 1.5 billion. Multiply this by 4-5, including all cleanup efforts, and you probably get a pretty accurate estimate, but tens of billions is ludicrous. For what? To make up for the fading investments that previously came out of China? Mark my words, push BP a lot more and you will have the British government recommending BP to show their big middle finger to all Americans and pull out, so simple. Nothing that the US can do nor will get.