Feinberg defends his oil spill claims work in court filing

The administrator in charge of compensation claims from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill argues in a court filing posted today that the openness of the process has been “nothing short of extraordinary” and that his efforts to compensate victims have exceeded what is required by federal law. The paperwork filed in federal court in New Orleans was dated Friday, the same day Kenneth Feinberg told reporters at an event in Mississippi that he had heard enough complaints about lack of transparency that he would have to do something. Later in the day, however, he issued rules for final payments that left unchanged the central formula he had proposed in early February. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is weighing the issue of whether BP and Feinberg, as its agent, are complying with the Oil Pollution Act. Among other things, Barbier is being asked to order changes to a form Feinberg requires final payment recipients to sign. By signing the current form, claimants give up their rights to sue BP and other parties. There have been widespread complaints about the handling of payouts from BP’s $20 billion fund. An Associated Press review published last week that included interviews with legal experts, government officials and more than 300 Gulf residents found a process beset by red tape and delay. At its center is a fund administrator whose ties to BP have raised questions about his independence. BP has argued that Feinberg’s methodology for final payments is actually too generous. In a statement Sunday, the oil giant said it accepts “his decision to utilize methodologies to which we have objected.”