Beasley Allen Files Class Action on Behalf of Louisiana Businesses Affected by BP Oil Spill

Lawsuit filed on behalf of individuals and businesses in Louisiana, which supplies up to 40 percent of seafood caught in continental U.S. and nearly 75 percent of shrimp caught in the U.S.

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Beasley Allen Law Firm

May 05, 2010, 11:47 ET

MONTGOMERY, Ala., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles, P.C. has filed a second class action lawsuit (2:10-cv-01344) with ties to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The suit filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana is filed on behalf of plaintiff Gulf Crown Seafood Inc., based in Delcambre, Louisiana, and seeks to represent individuals and businesses that have incurred damages related to the disaster, including real property damages; personal property damages; loss of profits and earning capacity; loss of commercial and subsistence use of natural resources; increased costs of public services; and loss of revenues.

Defendants named in the suit are BP, plc; BP Products North America Inc., BP America Inc., Transocean Ltd., Transocean Offshore Deepwater Inc., Halliburton Energy Services Inc., and Cameron International Corporation f/k/a Cooper Cameron Corporation. The suit was filed by Beasley Allen attorney Roman A. Shaul; Of Counsel are Stephen J. Herman, lead counsel for Herman, Herman, Katz & Cotlar, L.L.P. and Edward Landry of Landry, Watkins, Repaske & Breaux.

The oil spill is expected to make an especially big impact in Louisiana, where commercial fishing in the Gulf of Mexico touches so many lives. More than 2 million residents – 47 percent of the state's population – live in coastal parishes. In 2006, Louisiana commercial fishing exceeded 844 million pounds, accounting for 21 percent of the total catch by weight in the lower 48 states. In 2006, expenditures related to recreational fishing, hunting and wildlife watching in coastal areas exceeded $3.2 billion.

"Our concerns for the people along the Gulf coast continue to grow as we watch this situation and oil continues to leak into the Gulf. The situation is especially distressing in Louisiana, where so many people depend on the waters for their livelihood, and they are still recovering from Katrina," said Jere Beasley, founding shareholder of Beasley Allen. He added, "I have been in extensive litigation with the powerful oil industry and know first-hand they can't always be trusted to do the right thing."

Beasley Allen has an entire section devoted to handling complex environmental litigation. Protection of people, their property and their livelihood from large corporate polluters is one of the firm's top priorities. In 2003, our environmental attorneys negotiated the largest toxic tort settlement in U.S. history. At $700 million, the settlement for PCB contamination in Anniston, Alabama, involving Solutia, Monsanto and Pharmacia, doubled the previous mark popularized by the film Erin Brockovich. We are currently handling class action litigation against the Tennessee Valley Authority in the largest coal ash spill in U.S. history.

About Beasley Allen Law Firm

Headquartered in Montgomery, Alabama, Beasley Allen is comprised of 44 attorneys and more than 200 support staff. Beasley Allen is a national leader in civil litigation, with verdicts and settlements of over $20 billion. For more information about our firm, please visit our website at www.beasleyallen.com.