It is estimated that 706 million gallons of waste oil enter the ocean on a yearly basis. While offshore drilling, spills, and leaks only contribute around 8% of this, they still result in millions of gallons. Oil spills can happen for a number of reasons, from offshore drilling accidents to vessel accidents.
Oil primarily rests on the water’s surface, so the force of waves, currents, and wind causes oil spills to drift over large areas. This damages the open ocean, surrounding coastal areas, and marine habitats and environments. For instance, oil can destroy the water repellency of bird feathers, impair the insulation of fur-covered mammals, and damage fish fins and hearts. From dolphins and whales to sea turtles and birds, oil spills can have negative effects on all types of wildlife. Obviously, damaging marine habitats and water sources has a domino effect on maritime livelihoods.
The damage from an oil spill depends on the oil’s composition and properties, the volume of oil spilled, and the resources committed to clean-up, but any oil spill threatens devastation. An oil spill, such as the one that occurred after the Deepwater Horizon explosion, is one of the most catastrophic things that can occur to individuals, residents, and businesses. Not only is the environmental impact enormous, but it can have a dramatic effect on business, as well as people’s health.
If your life has been destroyed by an oil spill, call Arnold & Itkin LLP for a free consultation to learn your legal options. We’ve helped plaintiffs secure tens of billions in recovery to rebuild their lives, making us one of the most effective maritime law firms working today.
Get a free consultation today at (888) 346-5024.
Who are the people affected by oil spills?
Who feels the impact? Who suffers?
The fact is that everyone in a community is affected by oil spills. Businesses suffer losses as customers move away, industries dry up, and tourists stop coming to town. Crewmen (many of whom are local) suffer long-term exposure to oil fumes, the effects of which won’t be fully understood for decades.
These workers and business owners make up the backbone of the community, and when they start to weaken, the whole community risks collapsing. Property values plummet; assets built over a lifetime turn worthless. Entire towns threaten to disappear.
Who answers for that?
Our oil spill lawyers advocate for the rights of oil spill victims. We’ve committed our lives to the belief that offshore companies should be held liable for harm committed against workers, residents, and other businesses.
Our life-changing victories in the offshore industry include:
Our results have made us one of the nation’s premier maritime law firms. We represented nearly a third of the Deepwater Horizon crew, four women widowed by the El Faro disaster, and those left behind by countless other offshore disasters because we don’t shy away from tough fights. Our firm has beaten some of the strongest, most well-funded companies in the world because our oil spill lawyers put everything we have into every case.
Learn more about how we can help:
Free Consultation See Our Victories Meet Our Attorneys Read Our Blog
Historically, oil spills devastate the local economy, eliminating entire sectors of industry or driving away customers for years. When it’s clear that an oil spill resulted from negligence, commercial law gives proprietors the right to pursue those at-fault for their losses.
Industries impacted by past oil spills include:
For instance, as part of a class action settlement reached following the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP was forced to set up a $20 billion escrow fund to compensate businesses and workers who suffered losses. However, it’s important to understand that BP didn’t do this voluntarily; it was oil spill business interruption attorneys who fought to help owners recover what they’d lost.
We know the major effects that oil spills can have on businesses, such as:
Arnold & Itkin LLP has helped people recover tens of billions of dollars to rebuild their lives. Our success handling business oil spill claims in the past has equipped us with the strategies and experience necessary to secure compensation for what you’ve lost.
Our attorneys are here to handle both maritime and business claims related to oil spills. When you work with us, you can rest assured that we will take an aggressive approach to recover the compensation you need to protect your business.
Businesses impacted by oil spills can seek benefits under business interruption insurance to cover revenue loss during forced closure. Some businesses are able to claim expenses incurred by operating out of a temporary location. This could include rent for the new location, utility payments, taxes, and mortgage payments.
After an oil spill, locals often notice their health worsening in alarming ways. For instance, the 2010 BP oil spill caused several adults and children to sustain serious health problems, such as chemical poisoning. The damage has been so rampant that these health problems have been nicknamed “Gulf Coast Syndrome.”
Other health problems that have been reported following oil spills include:
If you were hurt by an oil spill from a third party’s negligence, you have a right to financial and medical relief proportional to the health issues you’re facing. Our firm has helped numerous people claim losses incurred by ongoing medical care and long-term loss of wages due to health issues. These losses, depending on the situation, could be more severe than you realize.
All of the health issues experienced by residents are even more acute for cleanup crews responsible for undoing the mess created by negligent offshore companies. The work of cleaning up an oil spill is dangerous and filled with exposure to hazardous chemicals. Companies must provide the best possible protections—including protective gear and adequate crew sizes—in order to prevent long-term health damage.
But companies rarely provide these things voluntarily. Ultimately, it’s workers filing claims for their health losses who force these companies to do the right thing. If you’re suffering from adverse health effects after an oil spill, the only way to rebuild your life and prevent other people from suffering what you suffered is to call an oil spill attorney.
Arnold & Itkin LLP can build a claim on your behalf, gathering evidence that your employer is responsible for covering your health costs, long-term wage losses, and more. Let us help.
When a single incident or product harms an entire group of people, the state may gather those claims into multidistrict litigation, or MDL. MDLs allow a single judge to hear all the cases related to an incident, which makes the rulings more consistent while giving each plaintiff a chance to be heard.
What distinguishes oil spill class actions from an MDL is that each case is still heard individually and granted an individual verdict. One person might receive a larger reward than another plaintiff because they suffered worse effects, or their attorney uncovered something unique to their case. In class actions, a single law firm represents a class of plaintiffs in a single case, and the verdict is divided amongst all members of the class action. In an MDL, the nuances of a person’s situation are weighed with far more importance.
In other words, MDLs are more advantageous for plaintiffs. For instance, if your community’s oil spill claims are consolidated into an MDL, you retain the right to choose your own attorney—and that choice could affect the rest of your life. Our firm has won history-making verdicts in multiple MDL cases, including an $8 billion verdict for Risperdal and a $175 verdict for Roundup weedkiller.
The Oil Pollution Act of 1990 states those parties responsible for an oil spill are also financially responsible for any damages it may cause. In the case of the Gulf Coast spill, a number of class action lawsuits have been filed against British Petroleum (BP) on behalf of those who suffered physical harm caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion. One such lawsuit—known as Multi-District Litigation (MDL) No. 2179—encompassed 77 different claims and resulted in a $20 billion fund agreed to by BP at the request of the federal government. If you or a loved one suffered health effects from the BP oil spill, you may be entitled to compensation for your injuries under MDL No. 2179.
If you were injured in a different spill, talk to an offshore injury lawyer to learn if a class action lawsuit has been established that affects you. Contact Arnold & Itkin to learn more!
Given the properties of oil and the scale of drilling operations, oil spills have enormous fallout that affects virtually every area of local life. For instance, recent reports have shown the 2010 BP oil spill may have affected the health of fish that were eggs at the time of the accident. This in turn affects the entire ecosystem. And once the ecosystem suffers harm, it can affect the lives and livelihoods of thousands.
Oil spills have been known to wipe out:
From hotel owners to wildlife conservation volunteers, no one in the community is shielded from the impact of an oil spill. The ocean, beach, and surrounding land suffer damage that may never fully heal. Oil spills destroy tourism, erode businesses, and force residents to move, which is why people have called our oil spill pollution lawyers.
In many cases, even a fast response to an oil spill cannot prevent serious damage to the ocean and marine life. To prevent further pollution, containment and removal of the oil can be done through skimming, filtering, or other methods. From there, it will need to be dispersed into small droplets, biodegraded, or allowed to pass through weathering processes.
As oil spreads, it partially evaporates but remains close to the ground where it can be inhaled due to its weight. When a breeze carries these fumes into populated areas on the coast, people breathe the oil fumes in, deeply embedding poisonous substances into their lungs.
Short-term effects are well-documented—exposure to oil fumes on the coast, both for marine workers and fishermen enlisted in clean-up efforts, resulted in nausea, dizziness, and lethargy that faded as the fumes cleared away. A 2018 study on oil spill cleanup crews found that exposure to fumes on that scale led to long-term issues with breathing, lung function, and heart health.
The long-term oceanic impact of the Deepwater Horizon and other oil spills has only become known to the public in the last few years as well. A 2020 study of the Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez found that, over a decade later, the areas within the oil spill’s radius had damaged coastal wetlands, damaged deep-sea coral, and reduced populations of oysters, dolphins, sea turtles, and seabirds.
It’s unclear if these lower populations are the result of migration due to a smaller food supply or if the environments themselves remain too damaged to support denser wildlife populations. Either way, it does not bode well for the fishing industry in the affected areas.
A community will struggle to get back on its feet after an oil spill, making it even more important that oil companies are held responsible for rebuilding these communities. That’s why our maritime pollution attorneys have stepped in again and again to hold BP, Exxon, Shell, and other companies accountable.
One of the most damaging oil spills in recent years was the Deepwater Horizon disaster. This spill damaged the ecosystem all along the U.S. Gulf Coast. As most oil spills happen on the surface of the ocean, the spill remains there for some time. However, this drilling accident began at the ocean floor and rose up to the surface. Oil spills like this can damage the marine environment at every level.
Common causes of oil spills include:
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig spilled approximately 210 million gallons of oil into the gulf—making it the second-largest oil spill in history. What led to this serious oil spill? Numerous flaws led to the oil rig blowout, resulting in several deaths, injuries, and severe environmental damage.
One of the ways that oil rig spills can be prevented is for employers to enforce stricter, stronger standards. When oil drilling workers make mistakes, they can be deadly and destructive. 25 years ago, the U.S. Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. This act was designed to help strengthen oil spill prevention and improve planning and response efforts. The responsibility for oil spills can fall on individuals, corporations, companies, and industries.
While oil rig companies can improve safety and maintenance standards, the U.S. government has taken stronger measures to prevent such disasters. The main method they have used is enforcing heavy financial penalties. For example, following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, they had to pay $5.5 billion for violations of the Clean Water Act, which was created in 1977 to govern water pollution. They also had to pay $700 million for injuries and losses related to the oil spill. This brought their total fine for the explosion and spill to more than $54 billion. No matter the size of the spill or type of oil, any unnatural spill can bring about devastating damage to the ocean environment.
While most recent memory brings the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill to mind, there has actually been a lot of enormous spills throughout history. Below, we provide information regarding 10 of the largest spills.
1991 Kuwait (240 to 226 Million Gallons):
Iraqi troops opened oil well valves and pipelines in an attempt to slow
troops that followed them.
1997 Bay of Campeche (140 Million Gallons):
An explosion occurred in the Bay of Campeche in Mexico. The oil spill lasted
for roughly 10 months.
1979 Trinidad & Tobago (88.3 Million Gallons):
Two supertankers collided in the Caribbean near West Indies, causing the
largest oil spill to ever be caused by a ship.
1992 Uzbekistan (87.7 Million Gallons):
In Fergana Valley, an oil well began to spill, leading to one of the largest
inland spills to ever occur.
1983 Persian Gulf (80 Million Gallons):
During the Iran-Iraq War, an oil tanker crashed and damaged a well. This
well began to leak roughly 1500 barrels a day.
To ensure you are fully prepared to make your case, your lawyers will need to gather all evidence and information about your situation, including damages and expenses such as medical treatment. Your oil spill claim needs to demonstrate “direct cause, duty, and damages” in order to qualify for compensation. The first two elements—direct cause and duty—are why it’s important to hire an experienced oil spill law firm.
Put simply, these three elements require proving:
Because Arnold & Itkin LLP has handled oil spill litigation before, we know how oil companies work, how the law holds them to a certain standard, and what to look for when they failed that standard. Just as importantly, our experience with previous plaintiffs means we know how costly these incidents are, so we can fight for a recovery amount that accurately addresses your long-term needs.
No matter what you're facing, our oil spill lawyers want to help. We are experienced in maritime, personal injury, and business litigation, bringing all of our extensive experience to work for you. We have represented everyone from fisher boat captains to publicly traded companies, as well as workers who were injured in the Deepwater Horizon accident that caused one of the largest environmental disasters in our nation’s history. No matter who you're up against, we know what it takes to beat them—because we've done it before.
To learn more about firm and how we can help with oil spill claims, do not hesitate to contact us.
We proudly serve clients nationwide, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Arnold & Itkin represented nearly a third of the crewmembers injured in the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
Because maritime law is so complex and so complicated, it is crucial that you work with an attorney who has an in-depth understanding of how it works and who has proven themselves in similar cases before.
