April 2010 was the worst environmental disaster in the history of USA. BP the oil tycoon was building it Macondo well on the Deep Water Horizon platform and suddenly it exploded. This resulted in massive quantities of oil spill across the sea that killed marine life recklessly.  It was the worst ever oil spill that soiled the water as well as the land. Apart from this marine life, those industries that sustained in this marine life went dry and all those who tried to clean the beaches of the wastes got sick. BP took responsibility of the disaster and since then there has been lots of battles going on regarding the claims.
Economic and Property damages settlement drafted by the Plaintiffs’ steering committee
The first criterion that we will draw our attention will be regarding the people who are eligible to the Economic and Property Damages settlement. Those people who live in Gulf Coast area, on lease or own the plot, and work in this area are eligible for the settlement. The Gulf Coast area includes Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, four south eastern counties of Texas, and Florida west coast. Any loss of property like beach land, waterfront, or wetland areas is subject to the claims. If an individual or business has suffered loss, he will be accepted as a claimant. This includes losses regarding the sea food industry. If a person has lost on the value of the house that was sold during the period he may apply for a settlement. Apart from this certain types of industries like casinos, race courses, defence contractors, oil and gas industry will be able to partially claim for a settlement.
Details of the deepwater horizon settlement that has been drafted are still being contemplated over and are subject to changes. March 8th was a notable day in the history of Gulf Coast Claims Facility, abbreviated as GCCF. GCCF was supposed to be replaced by the Claims Program that will be supervised by the court. The GCCF is still in a transition process and till the final closure it will pay all the claims that it has already acknowledged. This means that if for now a person wants to claim remuneration, he will not be able to approach the GCCF. On the other hand, in accordance to the creating of the new claims program, the court has appointed Patrick Juneau to administrate all claims that are going to come in the process of the program called the Court Supervised Claims Program. The coordinator of this transition has been appointed to Ms Lynn Greer. The claimants have to file a new claim with the Court Supervised Claims Program. So that the process does not become cumbersome, all the documents that have been already submitted to the GCCF will be transferred to the new committee. Claimants may need to submit some additional documents but they will not need to start afresh. In case the Claimant needs to file a new case he will be eligible to do so and if the pending offer is not expired, he may get sixty per cent of the interim payment. For this he will not have to sign a release. The entire Settlement Class will get their claims settled in accordance to the new methods that has been accepted. The claimant, who has got sixty per cent, will get the remainder of the forty per cent in exchange of this release. In case the claimant is acknowledgeable for the quick pay settlement he will be notified his claim of $25,000 for businesses and $5000 for individuals and if he accepts it he will have to sign a final release. But the time to react to this notification will be kept short.
Medical benefit settlement
Parties of Agreement of Principle are making an effort to decide on the final settlement by April 16 this year. The people who will be eligible for the medical benefits are clean-up workers, zone A and zone B residents, subject to considerations. The next question that will arise is that how are the zones described. Zone A residents are all those people who reside within half a mile of the coastal area that has been affected by the spill. They must have developed conditions that are resultant of the environmental disaster. Zone B comprises of the area one mile to the coastal areas. They include the wet land and swamps. The settlement has also defines the clean-up workers. All those people who were engaged in activities resulting to the oil spill including people off shore and on shore will be treated as clean-up workers. The benefits that will be extended to them special compensation for physical conditions resultant from the spill, regular medical consultation, an option for back-end litigation for all those who may develop special physical disabilities because of the spill and the creating of a program called the Gulf region Outreach program. Even the physical conditions have been accurately defined. They are divided in two classes like acute and chronic. Acute conditions are those symptoms that were short ten and are healed. But the symptoms of the chronic conditions are carrying on still now. For example, certain gastrointestinal, eye, neuron physical conditions will also be considered.  The amount that will be given for compensation will be considered keeping the following points in mind, the severity of the symptoms and whether they are acute or chronic, if the clean-up worker is a resident or not and if there is substantial evidence regarding the physical condition the person is in now. People who had to be hospitalised will get some more compensation as well as the expenses of the hospital. Regarding the periodic Medical Consultation Program, every three years the people will be checked for any kind of long term defects that may arise. Regarding the back end litigation process, the claimant can either claim this or go for a compensation claim.
A lot of loss has already been incurred environmentally and physically. It is time that the losses are compensated with the Class settlement and transition order.