Feinberg, Governor and AG Work Out Claims Speed Plan

March 4, 2011

Federal BP Claims Administrator Ken Feinberg has agreed with Gov. Rick Scott and Attorney General Pam Bondi on measures for getting compensation into the hands of economic victims of the Gulf oil spill.

Feinberg has agreed that his office will process at least 25 percent of all pending claims by March 31, expanding staffing in the state to get that done, Scott said.

The governor’s office also said that in each Florida claims office, the federal government will refer claimants to independent accounting firms that can assist in gathering the documentation for the claims, with the fee for the firms to be reimbursed by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.

The claims facility also has agreed it will provide to claimants a named contact for claimants who have questions, and to create a single Florida claims coordinator to assure responsiveness. Feinberg has also agreed that the facility will have accountants either on site, or available by appointment to help claimants with questions.

“Florida’s tourism, fishing and seafood industries are still feeling the impacts of last summer’s disaster almost a year later,” Scott said in a statement. “Mr. Feinberg agrees that it’s time to get to work and implement a streamlined, fair and effective way of paying these claims for Floridians.” Feinberg will be back in Tallahassee next month to report on the process of the claims process. He met with Scott and Bondi separately last month.

Comments

3 Responses to “Feinberg, Governor and AG Work Out Claims Speed Plan”

  1. BMB on March 5th, 2011 10:32 am

    He may have agreed to ‘process’ 25% of the claims, but that doesn’t mean he has agreed to ‘pay’ 25% of the claims. Why would they discontinue the emergency advance payments when they did not even have a methodology implemented to process final claims. All he has done since he began this process is hurt the hard working, job creating people that have been affected by the spill.

  2. Just Saying on March 4th, 2011 1:34 pm

    The reason this is taking so long is that the states that allow drilling offshore are first in line to have their claims approved or not. Floridian’s need to just get in line and wait their turn.

  3. jim on March 4th, 2011 6:40 am

    feinberg coming back next month to tallahassee on a brand new apology tour. this agreement between feinberg, scott and bondi means nothing. feinberg has to go and judge carl j. barbier will have to appoint a new administrator. feinberg’s statement that he will process 25% of the outstanding final claims by march 31st doesn’t work. here’s why. final claimants only have until march 31 to file an interim claim for the last quarter of 2010. if 75% of floridian claimants won’t know what the status or dollar amount offer of a final claim on march 31, what then? this whole process has been a train wreck

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News