BP hearing today to focus on $130 million third quarter budget of settlement program

NEW ORLEANS – BP is again going after an embattled court supervised settlement program by asking U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to withhold $130 million in administrative funds from claims administrator Patrick Juneau’s office for the third quarter.

The move comes after months of disagreement with between BP and Juneau on the legal interpretation of the Court Supervised Settlement Program (CSSP) process used to dole out claims to plaintiffs harmed by the 2010 BP oil spill, as well as accusations of corruption within Juneau’s ranks.

Maria T. Travis, who is representing BP as director of claims, requested more detailed information on what a proposed $130,300,000 in claims would be dedicated towards.

In a letter to the settlement program,Travis said the company's analysis showed the settlement program decreased activity, but increased costs.

“It would be unreasonable to approve a budget that validates and incentivizes the various claims administration vendors to perpetuate their track record of poor productivity and excessive costs,” she wrote.

The hearing began at 9:30 a.m. today in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally Shushan.