The Deepwater Horizons oil rig explosion took the lives of 11 oil rig workers and devastated the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico. However, many don’t realize that the effects of this incident reached inland as well.
Florida City is billed as the gateway to the Florida Keys and the Everglades National Park. It has an assortment of hotels, gas stations and restaurants that serve the needs of tourists that travel down U.S. 1 and into the Keys, but when the BP rig blew up, the people stopped coming.
The people of Florida City could only watch and record their losses as people tried to avoid the balls of oil washing up on the beaches, but their records would not go unseen. The Mayor of Florida City, Otis T. Wallace, was travelling through Key Largo when he saw a report about a lawsuit where cities were claiming damages against BP. When he returned home, he told the city’s attorney to join the suit.
Will Taking Big Companies To Court Help Me?
The city officials presented the figures gathered by townspeople in federal court, and now the city has received $1.01 million as part of the $18.7 billion BP settlement offered to the gulf coast states. There are still many cases against BP that have not been settled or received verdicts, but the wheels of the courts are turning.
The lawyers at Colson Hicks Eidson know what it’s like to fight a large corporation in court. We have experience taking on companies that hurt consumers and their employees, which includes helping the victims of the BP oil spill. To learn more about what we do, explore our practice online and keep following our blog for the latest in Florida legal news.
Colson Hicks Eidson—Injury Attorneys