oil spill
According to the Associated Press, "More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases."
This conflict of interest is terrible, because at the end of the day, the American people's best interest will not be protected.
Whistleblower lawsuits, whose objective is to alert the public to dangers associated with certain industries and sectors of the government, negatively impacting the public - in addition to other legal actions, where everyday Americans have sustained damage, will be tossed out of court by a judge looking out for their own pocketbook. It has happened many times.
Any judge with ties to the oil industry, whether it be stocks, board memberships or relatives, should immediately recuse themselves from said cases.
There have been notable cases where judges did not separate their best interests from that of the public and voted in favor of their stock in companies, rather than observing people's rights, in accordance with the law.
The U.S. court system should have a failsafe that if a case meets a certain criteria, no judge can toss it from court.
The Judiciary Report has seen corrupted judges invent technicalities, not based in U.S. or international law, to toss legitimate cases from court, because said jurist had stock in a defendant's company.
This needs to stop. You'd be surprised how financial fraud would decrease if it did, as corporations would think twice before they engaged in misconduct, knowing the cases would go to trial and they could lose their shirts, if they did not make a proper settlement.
AP IMPACT: Many Gulf federal judges have oil links
MIAMI — More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of judicial financial disclosure reports shows.
Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean — and others who regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells, according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed 2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.
Those three companies are named as defendants in virtually all of the 150-plus lawsuits seeking damages, mainly for economic losses in the fishing, seafood, tourism and related industries, that have been filed over the growing oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. Attorneys for the companies and those suing them are pushing for consolidation of the cases in one court, with BP recommending Texas and others advocating for Louisiana and other states...
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