Ms. Radnofsky reveals BP's statements that have proven to be inaccurate.
Here are contemporaneous statements by BP quickly proven inaccurate on its work "to be carried out to permanently seal the well" and confident statements about dealing with the spill offshore. On April 25, 2010 BP announced: "BP is preparing to drill relief wells to permanently secure the well. The drilling rig Development Driller III is moving into position to drill a second well to intercept the Macondo well and inject a specialized heavy fluid to securely prevent flow of oil or gas and allow work to be carried out to permanently seal the well." On April 25, 2010 BP Group Chief Executive Tony Hayward announced: "given the current conditions and the massive size of our response, we are confident in our ability to tackle this spill offshore.". And, in an extraordinary statement of confidence, Mr. Hayward continued on April 26, 2010: "the improved weather has created better conditions for our response.. This, combined with the light, thin oil we are dealing with, has further increased our confidence that we can tackle this spill offshore."
According to Ms. Radnofsky, a retired attorney and former partner at Houston's Vinson and Elkins law firm,
BP was wrong in its environmental impact claims that it could handle a spill even larger than what's occurring," Radnofsky continued. "It's bad lawyering for Texas' chief legal officer to claim that BP made 'all the right actions and all the right comments'. Texans can expect that incorrect statement to appear in the defense of BP in future litigation."
Greg Abbott, a typical Texas Republican, will always put politics ahead of the law. And Rick Perry is so determined to protect BP's butts that he willing to blame God for a man made disaster.
This is just pathetic. How much lower can the Governor and Attorney General sink? Rick and Greg are not alone among the pathetic either. David Vitter of Louisiana also rises to defend BP. Nevermind that his state will suffer the worst environmental and economic consequences of this man made tsunami.
To know more about BAR's background see her executive summary below.
Practicing on both sides of the docket, Barbara Ann Radnofsky has been listed in every one of the last 17 years in "Best Lawyers in America" and is currently listed in four areas: dispute resolution, medical malpractice, personal injury, and health care law. An attorney since 1979, she is a mother of three, wife, teacher, and mediator. After her 2006 retirement from Vinson & Elkins at age 49, she became the first woman in history to serve as the Texas Democratic U.S. Senate nominee. Barbara Ann was the first woman at Vinson & Elkins to have children as an associate and attain partnership. Barbara Ann has served as lead counsel in jury trials involving commercial disputes, medical malpractice, tax, contractual indemnity, false arrest, malicious prosecution, assault, premises liability, insurance defense matters, pedestrian and auto accidents, Section 1983 Civil Rights disputes, worker's compensation matters, and products liability; argued successfully before the Fifth Circuit on pro bono prisoner's rights and torts matters; conducted appeals there, and in Texas state appellate courts; represented clients in Congressional hearings and administrative tribunals. In 1999, Barbara Ann successfully petitioned the Consumer Product Safety Commission to prohibit defective barbecue lighters with estimated annual savings of millions of dollars and hundreds of lives.
A trained mediator (AMI Mediator Training, Summer 1991, Dallas, TX; Advanced Mediation Training AMI, November 20, 1993) and arbitrator (AAA Commercial Arbitration Training, Orlando, Florida, October 10, 1998), Barbara Ann has conducted hundreds of alternate dispute resolutions involving anti-trust, bad faith insurance, commercial, banking, bankruptcy, toxic waste disposal, pipeline explosion, and various personal injury matters.
This would be a good time to show some love for BAR. Heaven knows we could use a state Attorney General who works on behalf of the people of Texas instead of corporate tycoons. Corporations can well afford to pay their own lawyers. They don't need the state A.G. to protect them. Abbott, ahem, is supposed to work for the people of Texas.
Fortunately for Texas the oil leak did not impact our side of the Gulf. And hopefully it will not because imagine the plights of Texas fishermen, merchants and those who work in the region's beach industry considering they are saddled with a Governor and Attorney General that are on the sides of those wielding the wrecking balls. |
