Depositions and discovery gain steam in BP MDL

BP attorneys say that 20 depositions have been completed and 82 more are scheduled in the next few months in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill multidistrict litigation (MDL).

Speaking before U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier at the Eastern District of Louisiana, Don Haycraft also said that the "production of documents is going at an incredible pace."

Many more depositions are yet to be scheduled, with the ones currently set to take place coming in double sessions in New Orleans. There are also between 15-20 depositions have been schedule to take place in London during June.

Thirty-one depositions are currently scheduled for April; 26 are scheduled in May and June; five depositions are scheduled for July "with many more to come," Haycraft said.

June is going to be "an extremely busy month" because London depositions will occur the same time as the New Orleans depositions, meaning lawyers will be trying to schedule up to three in a day.

Not all of the discovery has gone as smoothly.

Defense attorney Andrew Langan explained to the court that discovery requires the transfer of thousands of files at once and that can cause delays in delivering documents.

Attorneys for the derivatives and insurance companies told the court that they were receiving their discovery materials sometimes one or two days later than they're supposed to, according to Barbier's pre-trial orders.

Langan said that a private FTP server has been set up so that all parties will have access to the documents remotely as soon as they're made available.

Federal MDL 2:10-md-2179