This is not the end of their legal problems nor is it the end of their payouts. Also, this settlement does not address the issue of liability. Bloomberg:
BP Plc (BP/) said it reached a $7.8 billion settlement with businesses and individuals over the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster, removing one of three major litigation fronts facing the company over the biggest offshore spill in U.S. history. BP said yesterday in a statement that the settlement will be paid out of a $20 billion trust set up to compensate spill victims. Lawyers for the plaintiffs said in a separate statement that settlement will resolve most private claims for economic loss, property damage and medical injuries. Plaintiffs lawyers said there wasn’t a cap on the total damages BP has to pay. “This settlement will provide a full measure of compensation to hundreds of thousands,” Stephen J. Herman and James P. Roy, the plaintiffs’ co-liaison counsel, said in their statement. “It does the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people.”
