It would be great for the economy of Idaho.<br><br>Janesta<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jul 23, 2010 at 1:31 PM, Tom Hansen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thansen@moscow.com">thansen@moscow.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Courtesy of the Wall Street Journal at:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/07/23/bp-litigation-from-the-bayou-to-boise/" target="_blank">http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2010/07/23/bp-litigation-from-the-bayou-to-boise/</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">BP Litigation: From the Bayou to . . . Boise?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Everyone who’s anyone in the world of personal injury
and product liability lawyering is making their way to Boise next week for the
Multidistrict Litigation Panel’s hearing on the colossal litigation
against BP.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Why Boise, you may be asking? The mountain town more than
2,000 miles away from the oily Gulf shores just happened to be next up on the
roving panel’s calendar of randomly selected venues for its regular
hearings. What the town lacks in accommodations (”It doesn’t even
have a five-star hotel,” one Gulf attorney complained) it makes up for in
seafood; its oysters come from oil-free Washington State.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">We outline in a story today how the attorneys descending on
Boise will be arguing for venues such as New Orleans, wanted by the plaintiffs,
and Houston, wanted by defendants. Others have offered up Lafayette, La., as a
mid-way point between the two cities, and some have suggested importing a judge
such as New York federal judge Shira Scheindlin or Texas judge W. Royal
Furgeson Jr., a member of the MDL panel.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Among other possible candidates is Houston’s Judge
Lynn N. Hughes, who has heard arguments on Transocean’s request to limit
its liability. “I am perfectly willing to do whatever is assigned to
me,” Judge Hughes said.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is also Judge Carl J. Barbier in New Orleans, who has
about five-dozen oil suits before him. Judge Barbier sold off Transocean and Halliburton
bonds about a month after the suits came before him. On Thursday, the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request from BP and Cameron International
Corp., the maker of a blowout preventer that failed on the well, to seek to
have him recused, but left open channels for that possibility. Judge Barbier
declined to comment.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Richard Arsenault, a Louisiana attorney who has filed
economic claims, said the panel will need to pick a judge with a wide-open
calendar. But with a case that if consolidated could include claims as diverse
as RICO suits and wrongful death cases, the panel will likely opt for a veteran
of mass torts.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">“I suspect that the experience of the jurist will be
the critical consideration and the other factors will be a distant second,”
Arsenault said.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Seeya round town, Moscow.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tom Hansen</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Moscow, Idaho</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>"Corporations
are an oppressed minority forced to move headquarters from state to state in search
of friendlier tax codes--sometimes being forced to live just off our shores in
tiny mailboxes." </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span>- John
Oliver, The Daily Show</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
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