BP Oil Spill Trials To Begin Next Year In Three Phases

August 16, 2011

The trial over last year’s BP oil spill, set for next year in New Orleans, will be split into three phases.

More than 100,000 plaintiffs are part of the case, which consolidates more than 500 lawsuits over the blowout of the Macondo well, the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and the ensuing 86-day Gulf of Mexico oil spill — the worst in the nation’s history.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said late last week that he’ll issue a formal trial plan later, but that an initial phase dealing with the actual explosion and sinking of the drilling platform, will begin on February 27, 2012. A second phase is expected to deal with the oil discharge itself, and a third phase would deal with the effort to clean it up.

By The News Service of Florida

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News