BP Paints Itself As Victim: How Will Future Litigation be Affected?

The Houston Chronicle has an interesting article in the paper today about BP's PR machine attacking the plaintiff's lawyer bar for greed. BP published a new advertisement Thursday in The New York Times and Wall Street Journal suggesting  it’s a victim of trial lawyers seeking a big windfall — an unfair one, in the company’s view.

The headline at the top of the ad states, “Business Leaders Agree: What’s Happening to BP is Bad for American Business.”

The British oil giant is continuing its aggressive challenge to how business claims are being handled as part of the multibillion dollar Gulf oil spill civil settlement that it reached last year with thousands of victims of the disaster.

BP chief: Oil spill settlement has been ‘hijacked’

The ad compiles recent public statements from some business leaders who offer support for BP’s position.

A federal appeals court in New Orleans is weighing BP’s appeal of a lower court’s decision to accept the way claims administrator Patrick Juneau is calculating business economic loss claims. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier has denied BP’s requests to halt payments from the settlement.