Berwick Moves to Make Oil Spill Claims

Berwick, La. will hire outside counsel to represent the town in litigation seeking payments from BP PLC for economic damage during the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Daily Review reports the resolution, approved by the Town Council this past week, allows the town to retain lawyers Sam Gabb of Plauche, Smith & Nieset and Russell Stutes Jr. of Stutes and Lavergne. They will notify BP under the Oil Pollution Act of claims to recover sales tax losses because of the spill.

Town Attorney Allen McElroy said he has given the lawyers the town's sales tax records for 1994 through 2012 to analyze town losses during the spill, which began in April 2010 after the BP-leased rig Deepwater Horizon exploded off the southeast Louisiana coast.