On November 8, 2012 Federal Judge Carl Barbier will hear arguments for or against accepting as final the settlement reached between BP and the private sector parties damaged by the Gulf Oil spill. The time period for filing objections ended on August 31st.  If the settlement is finalized, it will bring to a close the first of the three phases of the trial, the causes of the accident. The next two phases deal with the intervention phase (i.e. stopping the flow of oil into the Gulf of Mexico) and assessing the environmental damage. Given that Judge Barbier has already dismissed most of BP's contractors from the suit, and the private sector plaintiffs will have been awarded settlements, we will be left with the central players, BP, Transocean, Halliburton and the various governments, led by the Federal Government, to debate phases two and three. In an attempt to shape the legal battlefield, the Feds have filed a motion, "Memorandum of the United States of America in Response to 'BP...(Read Full Post)