Legal advisory council to help with claims

Former state attorneys general Jim Smith and Bob Butterworth will head up an oil-spill legal advisory council, offering advice to individuals making claims against BP, as well as any demands Florida may make.

Attorney General Bill McCollum and Gov. Charlie Crist — the current and immediate-past attorney general — said the former elected officials would be working for free.

The four attorneys all said the aim is to avoid litigation but to be prepared if it’s necessary.

“This is going to be a long process. We’re in uncharted waters,” said Smith, attorney general from 1979-87. “Bob and I are going to start getting to work this afternoon.”

In the Gulf, BP and federal responders kept up efforts to contain the spill and stop the flow of more than 200,000 gallons a day that’s still pouring from the blown well unabated. Forecasters continued to say the oil would not reach Florida’s shores for at least three days, the limit of their projections.

Crist said he spoke to BP chief operating officer Doug Suttles earlier on Monday and was assured the London-based oil giant would provide the resources to address the growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. BP has sent $25 million to Florida. State planners last week estimated they’d spent more than $3 million in response to the spill.

“If we can let people know what they need to do in order to get compensated, we would hope at the end of the day that there would be no litigation,” said Butterworth, attorney general from 1987-2002.

McCollum said BP is saying the right things now, but proper preparation is prudent.

“With the Exxon Valdez case, I’m told . . . there was a period of great cooperation with Exxon and then at some point it broke down,” McCollum said. “I’m hopeful this won’t. . . . We have a lot of losses potentially over an extended period of time, both to the state and to individuals and to local government.”

Suttles said at an afternoon briefing in Louisiana that the company has eight claims offices open, with seven more expected by Saturday. He said the average payment made to those making claims of financial damage is nearly $5,000.

“When people show up, they can walk out with a check in hand,” Suttles said.

McCollum said last week that BP officials assured him claimants would not have to waive future claims to get a payment. McCollum said last week BP officials said they’d put their promises in writing. On Monday, McCollum said they’d yet to do so.

While more pollution made its way ashore in Louisiana and more than 200,000 gallons of oil is released daily, federal officials and BP said they’re continuing to work to stop the gushing oil and contain the spill from the Deepwater Horizon site.

“We’re aggressively attacking the spill on the surface,” said U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry, federal on-scene coordinator for the response.

She said controlled burns of surface oil would resume in the next few days, weather allowing.

Suttles said 120 flights have spread dispersant on the surface, and 13 burns have consumed 13,000 barrels of oil. He said nearly a million feet of boom has been put in place, and 2.4 million feet is on order. A third test is set for underwater dispersant injection at the site nearly a mile below the surface where the oil is emerging from pipes leading away from the wellhead.

BP’s 40-foot, 120-ton containment box didn’t work over the weekend when slushy frozen hydrates clogged the mechanism. Suttles said BP is readying a smaller alternative, called the top hat. At the same time, relief-well drilling continues, and further efforts are still under way to trigger shut-down mechanisms at the wellhead, Suttles said.