BP tries to mitigate losses with appeals and countersuits

Once again, the giant oil company British Petroleum Co., Ltd. is trying to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.  The crime they’re being hit for, in case you haven’t heard, is the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill - the worst oil spill in U.S. history.  They've settled their damages suit but now that the money is trickling out to victims, they’re crying foul and trying to stop as many of the payments as they can.

The company’s lawyers have reportedly asked a judge to stop some of the payments, claiming that the administrator in charge of calculating and approving the damages isn't doing his job correctly.  They say that the number is too high and that many of the proposed losses are nothing but B.S.  They are claiming that they are being asked to pay for things they hadn't calculated into their budget and thus it’s not fair to them.  They also say that many of the fees are either based on projected losses or are from victims that have no right to make claims, and thus they are, according to BP, “non-existent” damages.  To make matters even worse, the oil company is suing those responsible for estimating the payments and trying to get even more of their money back in that fashion.

While it’s understandable that there would be people trying to piggyback on the suit and take some of BP’s oil money, this is something that the company, assuming they have competent people working for them, would have realized well before the settlement was concluded.  Essentially, it seems like they just didn't do their math right and finally realized how much they were going to have to pay once the checks mailing.  Now, it’s up to BP’s lawyers to take whatever steps are necessary, ethical or otherwise, to recover their losses.

It’s amazing to me that a big oil company can have such an accident and not be shut down outright.  Considering the damage they've done to the gulf, $8.5 billion seems rather light.  Now they’re desperate and want some money back so they’re going the legal route against the very people they made into victims with the spill.  It just goes to show that if you have an army of lawyers, you can do pretty much anything, from hiding evidence to suing the people who are trying to make things right.

Sure, it’s only natural that the BP legal team would make a counterattack, but I personally have no pity for them.  Take their money, bankrupt them if need be, but don’t let them walk away and think they can do whatever they want just by throwing money around and using lawyers as a shield against justice.

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