ATTORNEY GENERAL TO MEET WITH COUNTERPARTS IN MOBILE; URGES LAWYERS NOT TO RUSH TO COURT (AL.COM)
Apr 30, 2010
By Brendan Kirby on al.com
MOBILE, Ala. -- Alabama's attorney general, who plans to meet here
Sunday with his counterparts from four other Gulf Coast states, urged
trial lawyers today to hold their fire.
Attorney General Troy King will discuss plans to hold BP Plc accountable
for the costs of last week's drilling rig explosion that has caused
an ever-growing oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. In the meantime, though,
King said in a prepared statement that attorneys should refrain from rushing to court.
Troy King ... to discuss spill with counterparts in Mobile. "This
is not a time for class-action lawsuits and profit taking," he said
in a statement. "This is a time of preparedness and prayer."
That has not stopped some of the state's most prominent lawyers from
filing lawsuits, however. As of Friday afternoon, 10 separate class-action
suits had been filed in Mobile's federal court, alone, against BP
Plc and other companies involved with the Deepwater Horizon.
Prominent Mobile lawyer Robert Cunningham, whose firm has filed three
class-action federal lawsuits in Mobile and another two in Florida, said
he was not content to wait for BP to make good on its promises to compensate
businesses and residents who stand to suffer great losses.
He pointed to the experience of victim of a 1989 oil tanker spill in Alaska.
"If you'll look back to the Exxon Valdez, you'll see that
Exxon said the same thing," he said.