Weiss
The Gulf Coast Claims Facility in charge of distributing $20 billion to Gulf Coast residents affected by the BP oil spill has announced it will close and consolidate eight offices.
Three offices in Louisiana, one in Alabama and four in Florida will be closed effective June 1.
The announcement was made May 18 on the GCCF Web site and the story was first reported on BlogofNewOrleans.com.
In the BlogofNewOrleans.com story, attorney Camille Biros is quoted as saying that the closures come after "a comprehensive review of the 35 GCCF site offices throughout the Gulf."
Biros is an attorney for the New York firm Feinberg-Rozen, which has been assigned to run the GCCF.
Biros said that workers in the closed GCCF offices will be transferred to the 27 that remain open across the Gulf Coast.
"The consolidation of these offices continues the efforts of the GCCF to optimize and provide the most efficient way to assist claimants by consolidating and reassigning our most knowledgeable staff with experience in GCCF processes and procedures to the busiest GCCF Claims Office facilities experiencing the highest volume and frequency of visiting claimants," she said in an e-mail to the Record.
Amy Weiss of Point Blank Public Affairs, the firm that represents Kenneth Feinberg, said that the closing and consolidation of offices was an expected development.
"During the last few months, there has been a sharp reduction in the number of claims filings," Weiss said. "We have currently processed 90 percent of all the claims and new claims continue to diminish."