Mississippi Center for Justice leads effort for free legal services to BP Oil claimants

Mississippi Center for Justice leads effort for free legal services to BP Oil claimants

The Mississippi Center for Justice has been named the administrator for a $1.9 million grant from Gulf Coast Claims Facility to provide free legal services to BP oil claimants across a five-state area. A network of nonprofit civil legal services organizations from Texas to Florida is now providing free legal assistance to unrepresented claimants in the BP oil disaster recovery. Attorneys will advise claimants about documentation needed for the claims process, review settlement offers and provide legal advice and assistance about other matters related to their claims. Legal assistance is offered independent of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.

“As Gulf Coast residents continue to struggle with recovery from the BP oil disaster, we are here to ensure they have equitable access to a fair claims process,” says Martha Bergmark, Mississippi Center for Justice president. “We are collaborating with similar organizations in other Gulf states to ensure that claimants have an opportunity to seek a fair settlement.”

The group aims to provide legal assistance to residents who may otherwise be unable to afford an attorney. The organizations have been working together to examine the claims process and have provided input to GCCF about barriers that the process creates to low-income and minority claimants.

“Legal services attorneys from the Gulf states have been working together since last summer to find a way to provide this service to victims of the BP oil disaster,” said Bergmark. “We know from previous disaster recovery situations that low-income people need legal assistance but cannot afford an attorney. Without this service, they are denied a fair opportunity to fully explore their options. We are delighted that our diligent efforts to make this a cornerstone of the claims process is now a reality.”

Claimants may request the free legal assistance at any claims office, or by contacting the appropriate organization in their state.

Alabama 866-456-4995, press 6  www.legalservicesalabama.org  Services provided by Legal Services Alabama

Florida  855-299-1337  Services provided by Legal Services of North Florida and North Florida Center for Equal Justice

Louisiana 504-355-0970 if you are in Orleans or Jefferson Parish. Outside those areas, call 800-310-7029.  Or, e-mail your name, telephone number and a brief description of the help you are seeking to: oil.spill.info@laciviljustice.org.
Services provided by Louisiana Civil Justice Center, Louisiana Justice Institute, Moving Forward Gulf Coast, Pro Bono Project, and Southeast Louisiana Legal Services

Mississippi  888-725-5423  www.mscenterforjustice.org  Services provided by Mississippi Center for Justice, Mississippi Center for Legal Services and Mississippi Volunteer Lawyers Project

Texas  800-733-8394 
Services provided by Lone Star Legal Aid



Gulf Coast Claims Facility is also referring claimants from the claims centers. More than 500 requests for free legal services have already been referred to the appropriate legal services organizations in each state.

"The story that everybody has been talking about" -- Disturbing Test Results

Part I here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azzV_H...

Oil Spill Health Issues, KLFY, January 27, 2011: http://www.klfy.com/Global/story.asp?... [A] new report just out has revealed some very disturbing findings. ... A blood study that was conducted on four males ages 3 to 43 and one female age 38 in December of last year. Subra says the results of those tests have revealed elevated levels of six toxic and potentially life threatening chemicals associated with crude oil, most notably Ethylbenzene which has been linked to kidney damage and cancer. ... UL Lafayette Professor Paul Klerks is an expert in the environmental toxicology and he says the high levels of ethyl benzene found in human patients is alarming but he doesn't believe its reason to panic just yet. "This is potentially cause for concern, but it's a very small sample size of five so it's really hard to tell with just a small sample size what it means as whole." ... [Their] problems included everything from trouble breathing, and bleeding from the ears, to swelling of the limbs and blood in the stool. Some of the more unusual cases include a commercial diver who is plagued by mysterious rash and the three year son of a fisherman who is suffering from kidney stones.

Forgetfulness Is Our Enemy, Recovery Is Our Salvation

Since I first arrived on the Gulf Coast to cover the BP Slick disaster I have met and befriended thousands both here in America and around the globe. People flocked to my blog site to see what was happening due to me ability to fly out there and bring in fresh new footage at least weekly. This was due to my good friend and pilot, Tom Hutchings with the flight service, SouthWings.

SouthWings and Tom provided a platform like no other in the world. Even the US Coast Guard footage never showed what we captured and exposed to the world.

Supposedly the well is sealed but the disaster still is with us today.

This video is of the beginning of projects intended to restore coastal Alabama marshes by creating new oyster reefs to protect them from the daily wave action which causes the loss of several feet a year.

                 Check out why “Forgetfulness Is Our Enemy and Recovery Is Our Salvation!”

          

Chasidy Hobbs, Emerald COASTKEEPER

Compounds from corexit were found 200 miles from the wellhead 2 months after BP supposedly stopped using them, according to a study published in the peer reviewed journal Environment Science and Technology. 1 thing is for certain, the very short life span claimed by BP and the EPA is obviously false or BP continues to spray corexit.












The study is attached or you may rather read a news story:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gulf-dispersants-20110127,0,2091566.story

http://esciencenews.com/articles/2011/01/26/first.report.fate.underwater.dispersants.deepwater.horizon.oil.spill


Chasidy Fisher Hobbs
Coastkeeper & Executive Director
Emerald Coastkeeper, Inc.
850-429-8422
chasidy@emeraldcoastkeeper.org
www.emeraldcoastkeeper.org

We need members to help in our fight for clean water. Please Join NOW: www.emeraldcoastkeeper.org/donate

Proud member of
WATERKEEPER Alliance
http://www.waterkeeper.org

Donate to all Waterkeepers on the Gulf Coast:
http://www.saveourgulf.org


"Never underestimate the power a few dedicated citizens have to change the world, indeed that is all that ever has" Margaret Mead

Claimants can obtain free legal assistance for oil spill claims

Please see below a message from Senator Bill Nelson:
Claimants can obtain free legal assistance for oil spill claims

Attorneys for Legal Services of North Florida are ready to help individuals and businesses navigate the claims process in the aftermath of the BP oil spill.

LSNF is participating in a five-state network of nonprofit civil legal services now providing free legal help to unrepresented claimants, who can receive advice on documentation needed for the claims process, review of settlement offers and assistance with related matters. "Generally, there is a lot of confusion about the process," said Leslie Powell, senior attorney in Pensacola for Legal Services of North Florida. Individuals are unsure of which claims options to pursue or which would be in their best interest. "There are three processes that people may go through. Those three combined make it harder for them to make a decision," Powell added.


LSNF has joined with other legal-aid programs in five Gulf states from Texas to Florida under a grant funded by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. The grant is administered by the Mississippi Center for Justice, a nonprofit law firm, and the legal help is offered independently of the GCCF.

The service is for residents who may otherwise be unable to afford an attorney. The aid organizations have been examining the claims process and have provided input about barriers that the process creates to low-income and minority claimants, according to LSNF.

"LSNF has seen its clients adversely affected by the BP oil disaster. With the continuing economic strife, as well as concerns about the oil spill and the effects on the livelihood of those living in north Florida, LSNF is seeing more and more people come to us for help," said Kristine E. Knab, LNSF's executive director.

LSNF is a private nonprofit that provides free legal representation to low-income people with civil legal problems. It has offices in Tallahassee, Quincy, Panama City, Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola. For information on claims assistance, call (855) 299-1337 or visit www.lsnf.org.




Chasidy Fisher Hobbs Coastkeeper

Jerry Cope

Designer, Filmmaker, Eco Activist

Posted: January 26, 2011 06:18 PM 

From Huffington Post...

Spill Commission Concludes Dispersants Are an Acceptable 'Tradeoff'

If one were to judge by the amount of media attention and press recently the BP blowout at the Macondo site in the Gulf of Mexico nine months ago is a wrap. The report given to President Obama from the National Oil Spill Commission, which was completed on a very tight timeline, provides an overview of the spill and recommendations for ensuring such an incident does not happen again in the future. Unfortunately, due to time constraints, the report did not include or consider a sufficient amount of independent data regarding the short- and long-term impacts of the spill on the ecosystems, marine life, and human health. Independent studies on all aspects of the spill have been hampered by both a lack of funding and the withholding of critical data from researchers by government agencies and BP. Even as the report was released and commissioners holding forums and press briefings along the Gulf Coast, record amounts of crude continue to roll in with the tides. On Thursday, January 13, a record 17,000 lbs of crude was collected from the surf on one small section of beach in the Ft. Morgan area of Alabama.
From Louisiana to Florida, cleanup workers, ordinary citizens, and tourists have been sickened by exposure to the toxic crude and dispersants. In the areas where people live near or are surrounded by the Gulf waters, documented cases of sickness consistent with chemical poisoning related to crude and dispersants continue to increase; specifically southern Louisiana, the Ocean Springs area of Mississippi, and the Gulf Shores/Orange Beach resorts cities of Alabama. Despite medical tests showing high levels of chemical poisoning and physicians reports confirming widespread illnesses, the mainstream media has given only passing coverage to the health issues. The National Oil Spill Commission in its final report to the president likewise gives the health impacts only a passing mention despite the fact that it was a top-tier issue at every public forum the Commission held as Commissioner Frances Beinecke noted recently in New Orleans.


The use of the Nalco Corexit dispersants has been riddled with controversy from the beginning. While the EPA theoretically has ultimate control over their use, a loophole in the National Oil and Hazardous Substance Pollution Contingency Plan (300.915 (d) ) allows the Coast Guard to unilaterally approve their deployment if the spill poses a "threat to human safety." One can not ignore the irony of this justification for the use of Corexit as the dispersant itself is a known carcinogen, causes genetic mutations, and can bioaccumulate, thus posing a health threat to anyone consuming seafood caught in contaminated waters. According to officials, dispersant use was terminated in mid-July. However, Corexit was observed being used and recorded in late October with continued reports of aircraft spraying through December and into January 2011 in Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida.
Below are the Metametrix test results for an 11-year-old boy, Noah, who lives in Mississippi. In late October Noah's mother Lorrie who is a crabber, heard an airplane flying very low over their house. They ran outside and found that the plane had sprayed the area with dispersant on its way out to the gulf. Lorrie and her family drove down to the beach and observed the plane flying in close to shore spraying. In December Lorrie, her husband Bubba, and 11-year-old son Noah were tested for chemical poisoning. The bloodwork for these tests was drawn on December 6, 2010. The levels indicated of toxic VOC's related to crude and the dispersant are reason for serious concern, especially for Noah who tested higher than his parents. He has extreme difficulty breathing, consistent nose bleeds, stomach cramps, excruciating headaches, and problems with short term memory. He, his parents and many others need immediate medical attention and treatment.
Oil Spill Commissioner Don Boesch has steadfastly refused to acknowledge the health impacts on US citizens and continues to defend the use of dispersants. The Spill Commission, during its six-month investigation, received numerous firsthand accounts of sickness and medical reports documenting chemical poisoning. Boesch has repeatedly fallen back on the fallacious argument that because the dispersant contains chemicals found in everyday household products it is safe. The concentrations and amount of these chemicals is the issue, not whether they may or may not be found in household products. It was never safe to deny respirators and protective gear to oil spill cleanup workers working with hazardous chemicals. Nine months after the spill, cleanup crews continue to be threatened with immediate termination should they choose to protect themselves from exposure to crude and dispersants. Workers on the beaches wearing respirators and full Tyvex do not present an acceptable image to the public or media. Allowing them to wear protective equipment could also potentially create legal problems for BP and its subcontractors as a de facto admission that dangerous conditions exist.

Noah's Tests Results Published With Parent's Permission

Alabama’s new AG pursuing BP suit as lead attorney

By Bob Johnson The Associated Press

Published: Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 3:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 11:02 p.m.

( page of 2 )

MONTGOMERY | Alabama’s new attorney general says he will be lead counsel in the state’s lawsuit against BP and others over the Gulf oil spill and that he hopes his presence at a federal court hearing shows the judge how important the case is to residents harmed by the disaster.

Luther Strange said Wednesday that he’ll take the lead since the state is no longer using private law firms for the case.

Alabama has been harmed more than any other Gulf state hit by the spill because its tourism revenue is based on attracting visitors to its pristine white sand beaches, he said. Strange estimated that the state lost $148 million in tax revenues because of the spill and that businesses lost as much as $824 million in earnings.

The hundreds of lawsuits that have been filed against BP and other companies over damages have been consolidated before U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans. Barbier is holding a status conference in his courtroom at 9:30 a.m. Friday to discuss how to proceed with efforts to settle some of the cases and bring others to trial.

“I want to make sure the judge understands this is a top priority for Alabama,” Strange said about being there.

Strange said he is working with new Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley to pursue both the lawsuit and claims against BP. Former Gov. Bob Riley and former Attorney General Troy King were often at odds over how to proceed to recover losses. King filed a lawsuit, while Riley initially wanted to pursue the claims process.

Deputy Attorney General Corey Maze will be in court with Strange. He said attorneys are still trying to determine how much money the state lost that would include cleanup and lost tax revenue.

Asked if he thought the state’s claims against BP would eventually go to court, Maze said, “I question whether BP wants to face an Alabama jury knowing what they’ve done to Alabama.”

Former Alabama Lt. Gov. Jere Beasley said his Montgomery law firm had been working on the legal action against BP for the state, but stepped aside when Strange took office earlier this month.

But Beasley said his firm still represents numerous clients with claims and lawsuits against BP. One of his firm’s attorneys, Ron Jones, has been appointed by Judge Barbier to a committee that his helping the judge manage the massive case.