“I don't think hiring the first attorney you talk to is necessarily the best course of action,” said Brian Beckcom, a Board Certified Attorney in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Beckcom has represented workers against Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon platform that exploded and sank last month. He urges victims and families to take their time during the investigation and particularly to “be very careful about hiring an attorney based on their website alone.”
The families of two of the victims did not heed that advice and filed claims within one day of the platform sinking on April 22. This even though the search for the 11 missing workers was still being conducted and there was still a chance—albeit remote—that some of the missing could be rescued. Eventually the missing were pronounced to have been killed in the blast.
Preying upon suffering family members even as hope flickers ever so slightly is like a mortician circling the beds of the elderly while a priest administers last rights in a nursing home.
What BP is doing is like having that same priest also administer last rights to the nursing staff of the home, only in this case the legal last rights to fishermen offering to assist in the oil spill cleanup. Meanwhile the Alabama Attorney General (A.G.) is trying to play the role of exorcist to protect those fishermen from potentially signing away said legal rights.
A.G. Billy King has issued a cease and desist order to stop BP from pushing settlement agreements on fishermen offering to assist in the cleanup of the Transocean disaster. The settlements would limit claims against the company to $5,000 and prevent any more action in the future regarding the Gulf oil spill.
“People need to proceed with caution and understand the ramifications before signing something like that,” said King.
BP operated the Deepwater Horizon platform that exploded and sank in the Gulf last month, triggering 210,000 gallons of oil that continue to pour unimpeded out of a runaway well.
Victims and their families need to bear in mind the enormously complex nature of this case as the list of defendants to have been named in various suits so far include the following: Transocean, Ltd., BP PLC, Transocean, Ltd, Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling, Inc., Transocean Deepwater, Inc, BP Products North America, Inc., BP America, Cameron International Corporation and/or Haliburton Energy Services, Inc.
That list is certain to keep growing. That’s one reason why it’s important to look for an attorney “who has the appropriate experience and resources, and who dedicates him or herself to maritime law, to obtain the correct settlement and properly represent you in such a complex case,” said Beckcom.
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