Articles Posted in Personal Injury

Where the world runs out of road and into bayou, and all that is left beyond is the Gulf of Mexico, dozens of docked shrimp boats bob in place. They should be out right now, green nets trawling for cash in crustaceans.

Among these many boats — actually, between the Capt. Andy and the Capt. James — there rocks the St. Martin. And on the St. Martin, there lives its owner, a Vietnamese-born American named Thuong Nguyen, whose right forearm bears a tattoo that says, in his native language:

“Life is difficult.”
Read the full New York Times story here.

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The government ordered a halt on Sunday to fishing in areas affected by the ever-spreading oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, a ban that covers waters from Louisiana to Florida and hinders the livelihoods of untold numbers of fishermen.

Citing public safety concerns, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration restricted fishing for at least 10 days in the affected waters, largely between Louisiana state waters at the mouth of the Mississippi River to waters off Pensacola Bay in Florida. Scientists were taking samples of water and seafood to ensure food safety.

Read the full New York Times story here.

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BP’s chief executive is coming under mounting pressure over the vast spill spreading in the Gulf of Mexico, which was caused when a giant drilling rig there caught fire and sank, with the loss of 11 crew members. The oil, still spewing from the well on the ocean floor, threatens to blacken the Louisana shoreline, and BP’s reputation.

When Mr. Hayward took over BP’s leadership three years ago, the company was badly run, accident-prone and accused in the aftermath of a deadly explosion at its Texas City refinery of putting profits before safety.

None of that seems to matter now, as BP heads into the crisis grinder. And with about 5,000 barrels of oil leaking from the damaged well each day.

Read the full WSJ story here.

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Oil gushed into the Gulf of Mexico unabated Saturday, and officials conveyed little hope that the flow could be contained soon, forcing towns along the Gulf Coast to brace for what is increasingly understood to be an imminent environmental disaster.

The spill, emanating from a pipe 50 miles offshore and 5,000 feet underwater, was creeping into Louisiana’s fragile coastal wetlands as strong winds and rough waters hampered cleanup efforts. Officials said the oil could hit the shores of Mississippi and Alabama as soon as Monday.

The White House announced that President Obama would visit the region on Sunday morning.

Read the full New York Times story here.

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An oil spill that threatened to eclipse even the Exxon Valdez disaster spread out of control and started washing ashore along the Gulf Coast as fishermen rushed to scoop up shrimp and crews spread floating barriers around marshes.

The spill was bigger than imagined — five times more than first estimated — and closer. Fingers of oily sheen were reaching the Mississippi River delta, lapping the Louisiana shoreline in long, thin lines.

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Teams of lawyers from around the nation are mobilizing for legal battles over the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, filing at least 26 potential class action lawsuits.

Attorneys say there could be hundreds of thousands of plaintiffs from Texas to Florida seeking damages. Plaintiffs so far include commercial fishermen, charter boat captains, resort management companies and individual property owners.

Plaintiffs in class-action cases seek to represent an entire group of people in similar situations who claim economic losses due to company negligence.

The lawsuits target BP PLC, Transocean and other companies involved in the offshore rig that exploded in the Gulf and began leaking oil.

Read the full AP story here.

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Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, who directed relief efforts in the gulf after Katrina, says that it’s impossible to estimate the size of the oil slick and that his priority is on stopping its spread.

The new top commander heading the fight against a massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico said on Saturday that it was impossible to estimate the size of the leak pouring into the water.

Allen’s comments come as academics and consultants say the size of the leak is growing and is perhaps three times larger than previously thought. The amount of oil leaked may already be about 10 million gallons and growing. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez spill was about 11 million gallons.

Read the full story here at the Los Angeles Times

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As a personal injury attorney, medical doctor and concerned environmentalist I have decided to team up with my very good friend, Spencer Aronfeld of the Aronfeld Law Firm. Today we are going to the Gulf Coast to assess for ourselves first hand the impact of this environmental catastrophe.

What will follow over the next few days will be dispatches from the front lines; first hand cataloging of the damage. We are hopeful that with pictures and video of the devastating damage we can start a discussion and have people think about the downside of oil.

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Driven deep into Gulf Coast waterways by wind and seasonally high tides, the spreading oil slick from the Deepwater Horizon accident could cause serious ecological and wildlife-health consequences long after signs of surface damage have been erased.

Independent studies of several major oil spills, including the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident, show that oil often reaches farther into tidal estuaries than previously thought and can soak into shoreline sediment where it can continue to affect fish and wildlife for 10 or 20 years.

In the aftermath of offshore oil spills in Alaska, Massachusetts and Spain, researchers discovered long-term effects on shellfish, crabs, seabirds, whales and sea otters years after the accidents. The problems ranged from altered blood chemistry and higher levels of stress hormones to erratic behavior, contaminated eggs and long-term population declines.

Read the full story here at the Wall Street Journal

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Frank Campo thinks the oil spill approaching the marshes east of New Orleans may destroy his community.

Campo, who runs Campo’s Marina in St. Bernard Parish’s Shell Beach, says the response to the spill is too little and too late to prevent economic disaster for the commercial and recreational fishermen who earn a living from the coast.

Read the full Bloomberg story here.

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