The Latest on the Oil Spill

A federal judge in New Orleans is trying to streamline the legal process for more than 30 lawsuits arising from the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and resulting oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

An order filed last week by Judge Carl J. Barbier of Federal District Court temporarily consolidates the lawsuits for pretrial purposes.

The suits represent only a fraction of the more than 200 filed in courts in Louisiana, Texas and elsewhere since the April 20 explosion. Judge Barbier said lawsuits pending in his district would be administratively consolidated pending a ruling by a multidistrict panel on how to handle all of the suits filed nationally. That panel will meet on July 29.

Judge Barbier has appointed lawyers to act as interim liaisons between the parties and the court on behalf of all the plaintiffs and defendants in cases in his district. Some lawyers want Judge Barbier to oversee all cases filed nationally. BP wants Judge Lynn N. Hughes of Federal District Court in Houston to hear them.

Lawsuits filed in various states have been brought by, among others, fishermen who have lost their livelihoods, investors whose portfolios are losing value with the plunge in BP’s stock price, and underwriters of insurance policies who are trying to block BP from collecting payments.

A Look at the Claims

BP is not hiring nearly enough adjusters to keep up with a flood of claims, a consultant hired by the State of Louisiana says.

The consultant also said that the number of checks being sent out increased sharply less than a week after Louisiana put pressure on the company to speed up the claims process. And it said the average amount per check peaked when BP gave the state data for large loss claims.

A BP spokesman did not comment directly about the findings, but said the company had responded appropriately.

The State of Louisiana hired Cannon Cochran Management Services Inc. to review the process. A news release said the company found that the number of claims rose 170 percent, to more than 85,000 from 30,000, during June, while the number of adjusters rose 87 percent, to 951 from 510.

Cannon Cochran also found that the daily number of mailed checks hit 2,500 on June 21, within a week of the state’s pressure, but was below 500 five days later.

And it said the total amounts paid averaged $2 million a day until June 15 — the day BP gave the state data showing payments of claims of more than $5,000.

The total rose on the 15th and topped out at $11 million on June 16, but it has consistently decreased since, averaging less than $2 million a day over the last week in June.

More than 60,000 of the 85,000 claims have been for individual loss of income.

“The average cost for loss of income, property and commercial damage claims is extremely low and indicates that many claimants had not received any payments by the end of June,” said Kristy Nichols, a state official who is overseeing the state’s response to BP’s claims process. “This is extremely distressing; families and businesses are depending on those payments to keep roofs overhead and food on tables.”

A BP spokesman, Daren Beaudo, said in a statement: “From the beginning of this terrible incident, BP has taken responsibility for responding to the spill and paying LCD wireless kits full compensation for those financially impacted by it. We’re working hard to get money into the hands of people in the gulf region in response to what is undoubtedly an unprecedented situation.”

He said the company had paid $144 million to thousands of claimants in four states.

“We have accomplished this by establishing 35 field offices — where previously there were none — served by a claims team of 1,300 members over a relatively short period of 72 days,” he said.

Tests Begin for Ship

A converted tanker billed as the world’s largest oil skimmer is being tested in the Gulf of Mexico, where officials hope it will scrub millions of gallons of oil-tainted seawater, The Associated Press reported.

Frank Maisano, a spokesman for the Taiwanese shipping firm that owns the vessel, dubbed A Whale, confirmed on Saturday that tests had begun. The Coast Guard said the process would take 48 hours.

Officials want to verify that the ship can make good on its promise of sucking up as much as 21 million gallons of oil-fouled water per day.