Oil Spill Claims – Ken Feinberg Statistics – August 31, 2010
Kenneth Feinberg gave the Press-Register new figures Monday on the number of oil spill claims that have been paid by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. As of Monday afternoon (8-31-2010), almost 29,000 people have filed claims. About 1,900 checks have been written for a total of $9.7 million. Feinberg said that forms filed by nearly 20,000 individual workers have been reviewed, and that today each one of them will receive a check or a message telling them what information they need to complete their request for payment.
A spokesperson for the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) said that payment statistics will be posted online daily at the GCCF website. The report that was posted on the website early Monday afternoon showed 29,867 claims for emergency advance payments, of which 1,935 have been paid. The total amount paid was $9,767,869.68.
The Washington Independent questioned GCCF spokesperson Amy Weiss about Feinberg’s promise that individual claims would be paid within 48 hours. “The 48 hours, as Ken has said, is 48 hours after the documentation is in.” She added that “every claim has been looked at so far.” Weiss said 88% of the requests were for lost earnings, about 6 percent were for “loss of subsistence use of natural resources,” and 4 percent were for damage to property.
Nearly all of the claimants have filed for emergency payments, which are supposed to cover losses for six months, before a final payment is made. One confusing thing is that there have been 1,358 “final claims” submitted, even though the GCCF isn’t accepting final claims yet. Feinberg appears to be confused by this, too, because the GCCF’s report says “Review underway to determine whether claimant intended to file Final Claim.”
If you filed for a final payment by mistake, there are at least two reasons you may want to withdraw it and submit a temporary claim. First, the final claim isn’t likely to be paid and you may not receive the temporary payment you are entitled to receive. Secondly, a final payment requires you to give up the right to request any further payments from BP, whereas temporary payments allow you to request more money.
If you want to read the rules Feinberg issued for processing requests for payments, we’ve put those online for you to read at Scribd.
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Oil Spill Claims – 26,000 Claims Filed, Only 1,200 Paid by Kenneth Feinberg’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility.
Kenneth Feinberg, head of the new Gulf Coast Claims Facility, spent the last two months promising everyone who would listen that he would process oil spill claims faster, fairer and more generously than BP. But after Mr. Feinberg took over the claims process on August 23, 2010, some people found that they couldn’t tell any difference. Feinberg admitted at the Southern Governors’ Association meeting on Sunday that his office had received 18,900 claims from individuals, and 7,400 claims from businesses, but had paid only 1,200 individuals.
Feinberg acknowledged that his office’s performance was “not acceptable.” And it’s hard to argue with that assessment. Feinberg has been telling people that individual claims will be paid within 48 hours of receiving documentation of the losses. He’s promised that businesses will be paid within 7 days. But some television and newspaper reports indicate those timetables aren’t being met, and that the GCCF is losing documentation, much as BP allegedly did in the past.
Claimants are also raising questions about the amount of money the GCCF is paying. Feinberg had promised to pay 6 months’ of lost income. That was part of his promise to be “more generous than BP.” BP had paid only one month’s lost income at a time, and people expected Feinberg’s checks to be much larger. But a Press-Register article Monday reported that the GCCF’s first 1,200 checks averaged only $5,000 each, while BP’s checks had averaged $3,200 each. Feinberg was unable to explain why the GCCF’s checks were so small. People who were expecting checks six times larger than BP’s $3,200 checks had to be disappointed.
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Feinberg’s Oil Spill Rules Don’t Create Trust in Florida and Alabama Attorneys General
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum joined Alabama Attorney General Troy King in criticizing BP Claims Administrator Kenneth Feinberg’s new oil spill claims rules today. McCollum issued a press release containing excerpts from a letter he sent today to Kenneth Feinberg. McCollum’s letter condemned the new rules, saying they contradict many of Feinberg’s previous public statements. McCollum wrote: “the current process appears to be even less generous to Floridians than the BP process.” McCollum added “the process appears to have as its primary goal the reduction or elimination of claims, instead of making claimants whole.”
Damning words from Florida’s chief legal officer.
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Oil Spill Claims – BP Escrow Fund Administrator Ken Feinberg Issues Rules
New BP oil spill trust fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg has been flying around the Gulf states meeting with people and businesses who have lost money due to the oil spill. People at these meetings have expressed anger at the way they have been treated by BP, and Feinberg has tried to distance himself from BP. While Feinberg has said his process will be fairer and faster than BP’s process, he has not provided much specific information about the new rules that will apply. News reports say some people who attended meetings with Feinberg have asked for copies of the rules that will govern the new process, but the rules have not been available until today. In a press release, Feinberg released his Gulf Coast Claims Facility Protocol for Emergency Advance Payments. Feinberg said “These guidelines are the result of many town hall meetings throughout the Gulf, listening to the people affected by this disaster.”
Oil Attorneys Are Offering to File Oil Spill Payment Application and Waive Fee on First Payment
Some oil spill attorneys are offering to file oil spill payment applications free, and they are waiving attorneys’ fees on Feinberg’s first payment (the payment for 6 months of losses). This means that people can get a lawyer to file the paperwork, and at the same time they can pursue a case against BP using the court system. Pursuing BP simultaneously through Feinberg’s processing facility and the court system may be the quickest way to obtain full and fair compensation. I’ll update this post next week to provide a way to contact attorneys offering this service.
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[Update 8-21-2010] The most current information on this topic as of 8-21-2010 can be found at:
[Update 8-3-2010.] Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the $20 billion BP claims fund, is expected to begin processing claims August 23, 2010. Pro Publica reported today that BP has stopped processing some claims, leaving them to be handled by Feinberg’s office. [End update.]
Information about the $20 billion BP claims fund has been leaking out each day since the it was announced, but what do you need to know if you have lost money due to the Deepwater Horizon disaster? The flow of information about the escrow fund has been much slower than the oil gushing from the Deepwater Horizon oil leak. In fact, it’s still hard to get a handle on exactly which losses will be paid, and how much people can expect to receive. Although Kenneth Feinberg, the new BP claims administrator, has been holding meetings to explain the new process, information has sometimes seemed to change from one meeting to another.
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Oil Spill Claims – May 28, 2010
Oil spill claims filed by residents of the Gulf Coast have left most people disappointed in their attempts to get British Petroleum to pay their legitimate claims for loss of income. Although BP is accepting and paying some oil spill claims (Coast Guard information on filing claims with BP here), it is paying too little, too late. It’s also failing to give people and businesses information about how much they will be paid, and when they will be paid, in the future. If BP acts the way Exxon did with the Valdez incident, it will be necessary for many Gulf Coast residents and businesses to file lawsuits in order to be treated fairly. [click to continue…]
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Update June 5, 2009: BP has announced that it will begin paying a second month of lost income claims.
Articles:
Louisiana to BP: Show me the money. (CNN-June 5, 2010)
BP says it will pay “legitimate” claims “for as long as it takes.” (AFP June 5, 2010)
BP refuses to give state of Louisiana access to database of payments. (TheAdvertiser.com June 4, 2010)
Original article: British Petroleum has made public announcements that they are paying claims, and I have seen them publicly announce that they have paid several thousand. I may have missed it, but I have not seen BP talk about the average amount of the claims they are paying. That’s understandable, because we now know it is paying very little. According to Alabama Attorney General Troy King, The company has spent about $600,000 to pay 2,000 claims in Alabama. That’s about $300 per claim. In Florida, the company has made about 1,461 payments in Florida totaling $442,000. Average payout: $302.53. [click to continue…]
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In a private meeting with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, BP CEO Tony Hayward refused to commit to pay all damages from Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to a New York Times article. Nelson and Hayward met at Hayward’s request in Nelson’s Senate office. After the meeting, they both addressed the media. Hayward, speaking first, said that the $75 million damage cap contained in the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) would “inevitably be exceeded.” Hayward then said “All legitimate claims will be paid.” When asked by a television reporter to clarify his statement, Hayward walked away without explanation. Nelson then disclosed that Hayward had refused, in their private meeting, to commit to paying all damages caused by BP’s oil spill. “When I said ‘Will you be responsible for the economic damages?’ he said, “That’s something we’ll have to work out in the future,’” Nelson said. [click to continue…]
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