A federal judge in New Orleans is considering whether to lift the U.S. government’s six-month ban on deepwater drilling imposed after the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. Judge Martin Feldman said he will decide by Wednesday. The Interior Department imposed the drilling moratorium as part of the Obama administration’s effort to show it was responding to the disaster. No new permits for deepwater drilling in the Gulf are being approved and drilling at 33 existing exploratory wells has been suspended. But the lawsuit Feldman is considering, filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, La., claims the government arbitrarily imposed the moratorium without any proof that the operations posed a threat. Hornbeck, which ferries people and supplies to offshore rigs, says the moratorium could cost Louisiana thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost wages.

Feldman, who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, has called the case by Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC and other marine service and shipyard companies against the Interior Department a matter “of national significance” and that the case will proceed on a “highly expedited basis.” A federal judge from Houston with a similar case brought June 17 by rig operator Diamond Offshore Co. listened by telephone.

Government lawyers said the Interior Department has demonstrated industry regulators need more time to study the risks of deepwater drilling and identify ways to make it safer. “The safeguards and regulations in place on April 20 did not create a sufficient margin of safety,” argued the Justice Department.

During Monday’s hearing, Feldman asked a government lawyer why the Interior Department decided to suspend deepwater drilling after the rig explosion when it didn’t bar oil tankers from Alaskan waters after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 or take similar actions in the wake of other industrial accidents. “The Deepwater Horizon blowout was a game-changer,” said the Government. “It really illustrates the risks that are inherent in deepwater drilling.”

BP said it won’t issue further dividends in 2010 and agreed to set aside $20 billion to help pay for claims as a result of the Gulf oil disaster. BP’s Chairman made the dividend disclosure after a meeting with President Barack Obama.

The U.K.-based oil company said it is able to generate $30 billion in cash flow from its global operations above and beyond the Gulf oil spill costs. BP said it will create the $20 billion claims fund over the next three and a half years. BP will pay $3 billion into the fund in the third quarter of this year, and another $2 billion in the fourth quarter. These will be followed by payments of $1.25 billion per quarter until the $20 billion has been paid in, BP said. The fund will be available to satisfy legitimate claims including natural resource damages and state and local response costs. Fines and penalties will be excluded from the fund and paid separately, BP said.

BP agreed to set aside an additional $100 million for workers who lost their jobs as a result of a deep-water drilling moratorium imposed by the President. The size of the spill was again revised upward, as the latest government figures released estimate 35,000 to 60,000 barrels is gushing from the mile-deep well in the Gulf daily. The rate of oil spewing out daily was originally estimated in April at 1,000 barrels and has been updated several times.

BP said it won’t issue further dividends in 2010 and agreed to set aside $20 billion to help pay for claims as a result of the Gulf oil disaster. BP’s Chairman made the dividend disclosure after a meeting with President Barack Obama. The U.K.-based oil company said it is able to generate $30 billion in cash flow from its global operations above and beyond the Gulf oil spill costs. BP said it will create the $20 billion claims fund over the next three and a half years. BP will pay $3 billion into the fund in the third quarter of this year, and another $2 billion in the fourth quarter.

These will be followed by payments of $1.25 billion per quarter until the $20 billion has been paid in, BP said. The fund will be available to satisfy legitimate claims including natural resource damages and state and local response costs. Fines and penalties will be excluded from the fund and paid separately, BP said. BP agreed to set aside an additional $100 million for workers who lost their jobs as a result of a deep-water drilling moratorium imposed by The President. The size of the spill was again revised upward, as the latest government figures released estimate 35,000 to 60,000 barrels is gushing from the mile-deep well in the Gulf daily. The rate of oil spewing out daily was originally estimated in April at 1,000 barrels and has been updated several times.

Soy product maker Lifesoy, Inc. was shut down by an injunction filed by the FDA. According to the agency, Lifesoy must register and comply with federal sanitary practices in order to be allowed to continue in business. Lifesoy was also accused, along with its owner Long Lai, of failing to hold and store foods under proper refrigeration to prevent contamination by foodborne micro-organisms.

Lifesoy entered into a consent decree of permanent injunction that requires them to immediately stop manufacturing and distributing food products until the sanitary requirements are met and certified by the FDA. Lifesoy makes sweetened and unsweetened soy milk, fresh tofu, fried tofu, soybean pudding and other soy products for human consumption.

This action by the FDA signals faster action against food manufacturers and distributors in efforts to protect consumers from foodborne illnesses.

A lawsuit has been filed in 295th District Court in Harris County, TX on behalf of a worker seriously injured in the deadly natural gas pipeline explosion that rocked Cleburne, a rural area 50 miles southwest of Dallas, TX, last week. Attorneys for the victim are Richard J. Arsenault, Wesley J. Gralapp and W. Mark Lanier.

The victim, a member of a 23-man crew employed by C&H Power Line Construction, was installing a utility pole when an unmarked gas line was nicked, triggering a massive fireball that consumed nearly 50 acres. The reverberation could be felt miles away from the explosion site, and heat from the blast melted the shoes of rescue workers, even after the fire was extinguished.

“The gas company is responsible for properly marking all of their underground pipelines. That didn’t happen, now a man is dead and several others were seriously burned,” said Richard Arsenault, whose law firm has teamed up in this matter with Mark Lanier.

The lawsuit alleges that Houston-based Enterprise Product Partners failed to properly mark the location of underground pipe, despite C&H’s request to do so. The Texas Railroad Commission confirmed that C&H had followed procedure and made the proper requests prior to the start of the construction. A full incident report is still 45-60 days away.

The victim suffered second and third degree burns to his back, neck and arms, which have resulted in serious damage to the muscle tissue. The concussion from the blast caused damage to his heart, lungs and internal organs, despite having been approximately 150 yards from the pipe at the time of the explosion. Several of the victim’s co-workers were also injured in the blast, including an Oklahoma man who died from his injuries.

“Plain and simple, this was a preventable tragedy,” said Arsenault, “and it’s troubling to see, time and time again, energy companies engaging in practices that play havoc with human lives as well as our environment.”

Today, Attorney Richard J. Arsenault addressed the topic of the “Louisiana’s Judiciary and Mass Torts, Class Actions and Complex Litigation” at the 2010 Louisiana State Bar Association’s Annual Convention in Destin, FL. Arsenault, who chairs the Bar’s Section on Insurance, Negligence, Workers’ Compensation and Admiralty, will be joined by a distinguished panel that includes Chief Justice Pascal Calogero, Judge Robert Klees, Judge Ward Fontenot, Judge Ronald Cox and Professor Tom Galligan.

At the convention, Arsenault will also chair two other programs 1. Recent Tort and Maritime Developments and 2. The Gulf Coast Oil Spill Litigation.

Last month, Arsenault and Galligan co-chaired the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Gulf Coast Oil Spill Litigation Conference in New Orleans, which attracted hundreds of attorneys from across the country as well as members of Bloomberg Business Week and the Wall Street Journal.

Later this month, Arsenault will serve as Chair of the HarrisMartin Publishing’s Oil Spill Symposium in New Orleans. In addition, he was recently named Co-chair of the American Association for Justice’s Gulf Oil Spill Litigation Group, where he will lead educational programs and provide litigation support to attorneys who represent victims of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The Litigation Group will hold its first meeting at the AAJ Annual Convention in Vancouver, British Columbia this July.

With a diverse career spanning three decades, Richard Arsenault is recognized as a leading lawyer in the areas of maritime law, serious personal injury and mass tort/complex litigation. He is a frequent speaker and has published numerous articles on various legal topics. Because of his unique experiences and expertise, Arsenault has been featured by the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, NPR, CBS, BBC and other major media.

Jurors in Colorado ruled that Time Insurance d/b/a Assurant Health must pay $37 million to a former preschool teacher for cancelling her health insurance after she was seriously injured in a car accident. Time/Assurant refused to pay approximately $185,000 in medical bills from the accident and cancelled the woman’s policy. The insurance company’s “excuse” was that she failed to disclose a previous emergency room visit for shortness of breath. Jurors obviously didn’t buy it.

After the debilitating accident, the Colorado woman was left unable to return to work and now supports her four children on Social Security disability payments.

This is just one example of the arrogance of insurers nationwide who want to cherry pick who they cover and arbitrarily look for excuses to cancel coverage in the middle of serious illnesses or injuries- just at the time you need your coverage the most! Kudos to the Colorado jurors for making the insurers pay a heavy price for their ill-advised actions. If more jurors will make similar gutsy rulings, insurance companies will be forced to deal with all of us in the fair manner we all deserve and expect.

The results of our national driving test are in and we Bayou Staters should be ashamed! Louisiana drivers scored 46th in the nation for their driving knowledge, with almost a third of the respondents failing the annual GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test. Louisiana drivers had an average score of 74.1 percent (70 percent or higher is a passing score) and 31.1 percent of Louisiana respondents failed the test. Sadly our poor scores reflect a decrease in good driving knowledge and habits. In 2009, we as a state ranked 37th.

The sixth annual national test gauges driver knowledge by administering 20 questions taken from state Department of Motor Vehicles exams. Kansas drivers ranked first in the nation (82.3 percent average score); New York drivers ranked last (70 percent average score).

Overall, the test scores indicate a large number of licensed American drivers continue to lack knowledge of basic rules of the road. Eighty-five percent could not identify the correct action to take when approaching a steady yellow traffic light, and many remained confused by the appropriate safe following distances. Is it any wonder that car accidents, especially those involving serious injuries and fatalities continue to be a serious problem? With this number of ill-prepared drivers we certainly cannot expect insurance rates to decline anytime in the near future.

We need to wake up to these realities and formulate better training for young drivers, stricter testing for new drivers and elderly drivers with health issues, as well as re-training for drivers who have a record of causing multiple auto accidents which involve injuries to others.

Giant retailer WalMart was forced to pull its Miley Cyrus line of children’s jewelry from its shelves after high levels of the toxic metal cadmium were found. WalMart has known of the high cadmium levels since February but chose to continue to sell the product. However, when nationwide reports began to surface, WalMart finally decided to do the right thing for its customers. The Miley Cyrus make-it-yourself charm bracelets were big sellers for WalMart which defended its decision to keep selling the toy by requiring suppliers to prove that the children’s item had little or no cadmium. WalMart did not apply that high standard to items already on its shelves. In response to inquiries at a hearing of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, WalMart said testing the items itself would be too difficult.

Cadmium had no good effects on human health. High level cadmium levels irritate the stomach leading to vomiting and diarrhea. Ingesting cadmium has also been linked to high blood pressure, iron poor blood, liver, kidney, nerve and brain damage. Breathing cadmium can severly damage the lungs and cause death.

WalMart was finally forced to stop selling the defective products after extensive reporting of the toxic nature of the toys. It appears they continued to sell the products which are specifically marketed to children because of the lucrative sales resulting in big profits. Although the defective toys have been pulled from the shelves, how many children have already been exposed to the toxic cadmium? We need to have better testing and approval procedures BEFORE these imported products reach American consumers.

In their annual “Best of Cenla Readers’ Choice Awards Issue“, Cenla Focus Magazine named Neblett, Beard & Arsenault’s TV advertisement as “Best Local TV Commercial 2010.”

Thanks to everyone that voted and thanks for watching!

Check out our ad in the next issue of Cenla Foucs!