Ken Feinberg: Oil spill claims changes made to answer Justice Department concerns

Published: Tuesday, November 30, 2010, 7:16 PM ??? Updated: Tuesday, November 30, 2010, 7:17 PM

MOBILE, Ala. -- Oil spill claims czar Ken Feinberg said Tuesday that he made several changes to his final claims process to answer concerns that a Justice Department official raised last week.?

Feinberg also agreed to Assistant U.S. Attorney General Tom Perrelli’s request to process all emergency claims by Dec. 15.?

Feinberg’s Gulf Coast Claims Facility stopped accepting new emergency claims Nov. 23, but there are more than 67,000 still awaiting review and another 147,000 that require more financial documentation before they can be approved.?

Feinberg has approved payments for more than 140,000 claimants and given out more than $2.1 billion across the Gulf Coast.?

Feinberg also said he would make the following changes that were requested by Perrelli in a Nov. 19 letter:?

• Interim payments will be given out more frequently than once every three months if the claimant shows a need for it.?
• When claimants accept a final settlement from BP PLC, the release of liability they have to sign will not waive their right to seek future payment for physical injury, including behavioral health claims, unless the payment specifically covered such damage.?
• A limited appeals process will be included allowing both claimants and BP to dispute payment amounts. Feinberg will choose a retired state or federal judge to name the members of the appeals panel.?

Feinberg did not, however, agree to a wording change that could be important.?

Perrelli had asked Feinberg to change the protocol to make it clear that the claims operation would pay all people damaged "as a result of" the spill. Feinberg said that he would continue to use the term "proximate cause" as his standard.?

Dane Ciolino, a law professor at Loyola University New Orleans, said the "as a result of" standard, also known as "actual cause," means that a claimant would just need to show that their damage linked back to the spill, whereas proximate cause calls for a much more direct connection.?

"If you drew a Venn diagram, actual cause would be the big circle, while proximate cause is the little circle inside it," he said.?

Feinberg told Perrelli in his letter that he believes his operation will be more generous than the law requires, regardless of the language.?

In the letter, Feinberg also told Perrelli that he would make his operation more transparent, although he did not offer specific details as to how he would do so.?

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