For some BP spill victims, legalese is just one language barrier to compensation

Even the lawyers and accountants poring through the 1,200-page Gulf oil spill settlement sometimes grumble about difficulties in deciphering the intentions of the document’s legal language. And as The Houston Chronicle reports, Chauvin, La.-based Vietnamese immigrant crabber Dung Tran faces an even more daunting language barrier. For him, the proposed settlement unveiled in March represents only the latest chapter in a legal ordeal made even more confusing by his limited proficiency in English. Since the 2010 spill from BP’s Macondo well, times have been hard for 46-year-old Tran. The spill damaged his 300 crab traps beyond repair, and now he struggles with a greatly diminished crab harvest and high fuel prices. “Before the spill, the crabbing was decent, but now I only net about $50 for a day of work,” Tran says. “If a hurricane or another natural disaster happens next year, it will wipe me out.” Tran, who supports a wife and three children, has been living off of savings and his reduced income while his damage claim has worked its way through an early legal response process and now the one created under the March settlement. He is among hundreds of Vietnamese immigrant fishermen waiting to be compensated for their losses by the $2.3 billion Seafood Compensation Program fund—part of the larger proposed settlement between BP and Gulf Coast residents who suffered economic or health damages from the spill. Read the complete feature story on their struggles to understand the settlement and get their piece of it here.