Daniel Becnel Jr., speed dialing over a speaker phone, places a call to a lawyer for a defendant in the British Petroleum-Deepwater Horizon rig explosion and oil spill.
“This is the king of torts calling,” he says when he reaches the attorney’s executive assistant.
“Oh,” she says. “Then it must be Danny Becnel.”
Becnel, adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses, nods appreciatively from his mahogany desk strewn with an impressive pile of legal papers. It’s from here, in a French colonial-style office in Reserve, La., population 10,000, that he orchestrated the filing of the first federal lawsuit eight days after the Apr. 20 blowout, and where he tracks the legal squadrons gathering to sue BP and its contractors for claims that experts say could add up to a half-a-trillion dollars or more. About 110 suits have been filed so far, according to Becnel, and dozens more appear to be on the way.
It is hard to put into words how shocked I am that it took BP so long to make any substantial profess in stopping the leak. It makes you question what kind of people they have running the company. It is really hard to believe how a major cooperation like BP could be so incompetent. They have been doing this for over a 100 years! The only good thing from this whole experience is that it shows we give companies like them too much credit. This whole situation is really sad. The worst part of the whole situation is that is that so many people have had their livelihood pulled out from under their feet.