AP IMPACT: Many Gulf federal judges have oil links

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j8f2c5EMHHyphrI-OoK7rjHYFkbwD9G5SFE01

By CURT ANDERSON (AP) – 7 hours ago

MIAMI — More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.

Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean — and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.

Those three companies are named as defendants in virtually all of the 150-plus lawsuits seeking damages, mainly for economic losses in the fishing, seafood, tourism and related industries, that have been filed over the growing oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. Attorneys for the companies and those suing them are pushing for consolidation of the cases in one court, with BP recommending Texas and others advocating for Louisiana and other states.

A Washington-based federal judicial panel is scheduled to meet next month to decide whether to consolidate the cases and, if so, which judge should be assigned the monumental task. The job would include such key pretrial decisions as certifying a large class of plaintiffs to seek damages, a potential multibillion-dollar settlement, whether to dismiss the cases and what documents BP and the other companies might be forced to produce in court.

The AP review of disclosure statements shows the oil and gas industry's roots run as deep in the Gulf Coast's judiciary as they do in the region's economy. For example, one federal judge in Texas is a member of Houston's Petroleum Club, an "exclusive, handsome club of, and for, men of the oil industry."

[bobbolink]

1. If the nation survives this catastrophy, maybe all of this will finally wake up the populace.

[TransitJohn]

2. Everybody in the Gulf has oil links

duh. It's one of the biggest industries there. That's like saying that many judges in the Gulf are also college football fans.

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3. The difference is these fans will be acting as referees in this 'game'

Wonder who is going to win?

Don

[NNN0LHI]

4. This is why the guy from BP keeps saying BP will pay "legitimate" claims

They know with this kind of influence that BP will be the ones who are deciding what is legitimate or isn't.

Don