Even today, BP is still associated with its calamitous 2010 oil spill, which spewed over 100 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The disaster polluted the ocean, coastlines, and animals living in those environments and caused medical issues for humans.
In 2012, BP was celebrated for reaching a settlement with individuals who developed illnesses after being exposed to crude oil and dangerous chemicals while cleaning up the spill. However, time has shown this settlement, and other measures to reimburse persons for private medical claims, to be largely ineffectual.
National Record Retrieval is aware of the burden placed on personal injury plaintiffs to prove causation in hazardous exposure cases. We work to relieve legal practitioners from having to obtain client medical records on their own, so exposure plaintiffs have fewer obstacles to recovery.
Failure of pressure-control systems on the Deepwater Horizon rig, an offshore drilling unit used by BP, caused the catastrophe and its radiating damage. Many people became involved with cleanup efforts, not just workers employed by BP.
Employees of BP, everyday individuals, and many coastal residents not directly engaged with these crews, particularly in Louisiana, were imperiled by proximity to both benzene and Corexit.
The oil itself contained benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer and other maladies. According to a report published by the Associated Press on April 19, 2024, GuLFSTUDY researchers have been dedicated to quantifying “workers’ exposure and” tracking health problems connected with the BP spill. This research has shown that, although most people were exposed to low levels of benzene, the scope of health detriments has continued to grow.
Corexit, the dispersal agent dropped aerially to aid in the cleanup, has also been shown to create pulmonary disorders. The manufacturer of Corexit initially claimed its product “was safer than dish soap” but has since distanced itself by blaming how the U.S. government implemented the product.
In 2012, BP conveyed to the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana that private claims, including medical claims, were likely to amount to $7.8 billion. An investigation by the Associated Press has unveiled that BP has only made $67 million worth of payouts in accordance with that settlement to clean-up workers and persons living on affected coastlines.
Most individuals who received any payment at all were given only $1,300 for their claims. This is the result of the 2012 settlement’s late supplanting of the word “manifest” with “diagnose.” Citing this language, BP later successfully argued that persons diagnosed after April 16, 2012, were ineligible under the settlement to be reimbursed for chronic illnesses. Many plaintiffs had to file their own suits to collect more than the settlement’s $1,300 minimum, which were largely dismissed.
Another challenge plaintiffs are confronting is demonstrating a causal link between exposure and an alleged illness. This is already a difficult element to meet for ordinary exposure litigants, but federal courts have apparently sided with BP to make it harder.
BP has contended that workers suing for health issues must prove “exactly how much oil and dispersant they had inhaled or ingested and that it was sufficient to cause their sickness.” This standard of proof is made an even greater deterrent due to the expense of receiving diagnoses and treatment related to exposure.
If you or your clients have suffered the impact of ongoing illness associated with the 2010 BP Oil spill, there is enough of an uphill battle to obtain a legal remedy. Getting access to your own medical records, or those of your clients, should not further hamper the ability to recover.
National Record Retrieval makes the process of requesting medical records easier by taking on the task of reaching out to healthcare providers, often using different information technology systems. After collecting the records requested, we then upload them to our digital platform for painless review and dissemination.
