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Judge, Attorney General face-off in Louisiana over lawyers in oil spill case
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January 16, 2012
Louisiana: U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier's decision for the State of Louisiana to set aside 4% of the settlement from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill for the payment of lawyers is not resting well with Attorney General Buddy Caldwell. Caldwell has issued a writ of mandamus asking the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Barbier's ruling. In the petition, he argued that, "The State of Louisiana's role in these proceedings has been routinely minimized, prejudiced or precluded."[1]
Barbier ordered that private parties to the oil spill lawsuit reserve 6% of settlements and the government reserve 4%. The settlement money would go to environmental recoveries and will likely be a large amount. Caldwell thinks that the 4% is too much to give to the lawyers and might hinder the state's ability to repair the damage to the environment.[1]
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