BP Suit's Complex Legal Structure Scrutinized

[cory777]

Source: WSJ

As dozens of attorneys prepare to gather next week in New Orleans for a kick-off hearing to the sprawling oil-spill case against BP PLC, legal experts are newly scrutinizing the complicated legal structure it will use.

In recent years, thousands of suits filed across the U.S. in some of the biggest product liability and personal injury cases—from harmful diet drugs to smelly Chinese drywall—each have been consolidated into "multidistrict litigation" cases.

The idea is to roll numerous suits of similar nature filed in U.S. district courts into one case before one judge, for efficiency's sake. The 1968 law that created the process stemmed from a price-fixing case that gummed up federal courts involving more than 25,600 claims against electrical-equipment manufacturers.

But critics of the consolidation say these cases become so unwieldy they sometimes drag on for years. While the cases concern similar topics they can include those seeking class-action status with hundreds of plaintiffs as well as individual wrongful-death suits. The critics point to asbestos litigation filed in the 1980s that has yet to be resolved or the civil case tied to claims from the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, which is still in its initial stages.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703897204575487970239591754.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us

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Greedy Bastards!



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