On November 18, 2014, the United States District Court Judge in New Orleans ordered the Claims Administrator to make the second round distribution payments to Claimants that have already received their initial payments/settlement on vessel owner, captain, crew and/or individual fishing quota claims submitted to the Deep Water Horizon Settlement Seafood Compensation Program.
The Seafood Compensation Program has an estimated 1 billion dollars left in the program that has to be paid out to Claimants, but because there are current uncertainties such as pending unpaid claims, pending appeals and pending fraud investigations, only half of the funds, or about 500 million dollars will be released to make the second round distributions to Seafood Compensation Program Claimants that have already been paid on their vessel owner, captain, crew and/or individual fishing quota claims.
Then, once the current uncertainties are resolved, the remaining half of the funds held back estimated to likewise be in the 500 million dollar range, will be distributed in a third round of payments.
Of course, BP is likely to try and further delay these payments through further motions and appeals. Right now, therefore, no time frame can be pinpointed as to when any funds will actually be distributed, but the Order issued on November 18, 2014 is a huge step towards making it happen and getting BP to abide by the terms of the Settlement that requires all the monies in the Seafood Compensation Program to be distributed to the Seafood Compensation Program Claimants.
The amount of the individual payments will be based purely on a pro rata basis using a mathematical formula taking into account the total amount of fund left over and the amount of the Claimants' payments already received.
Keep in mind that these supplemental payments only apply to Seafood Compensation Program Claimants and do not apply to other types of claims such as Business Economic Loss claims, Individual Economic Loss claims, Real Property claims or medical benefit claims.
A copy of the Order is attached and please contact David C. Rash if you have any questions or need help with your BP Settlement claim.