View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Via Sapientiae: The Institutional Repository at DePaul University DePaul Law Review Volume 64 Issue 2 Winter 2015: Twentieth Annual Clifford Symposium on Tort Law and Social Policy - In Article 19 Honor of Jack Weinstein The BP Oil Spill Settlements, Classwide Punitive Damages, and Societal Deterrence Catherine M. Sharkey Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review Recommended Citation Catherine M. Sharkey, The BP Oil Spill Settlements, Classwide Punitive Damages, and Societal Deterrence, 64 DePaul L. Rev. (2015) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/law-review/vol64/iss2/19 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Law Review by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE BP OIL SPILL SETTLEMENTS, CLASSWIDE PUNITIVE DAMAGES, AND SOCIETAL DETERRENCE Catherine M. Sharkey* INTRODUCTION In late 2012, BP p.l.c. (BP) funded the Court Supervised Settlement Program as part of a class action settlement of the consolidated mul- tidistrict litigation arising from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The BP settlement provided solely for compensatory damages to claimants. It left open the possibility that claimants eligi- ble for punitive damages could be certified as a class for litigation or settlement purposes against BP’s codefendants (but not BP) in the future. In 2014, Halliburton Company (Halliburton) (one of BP’s co- defendants) reached such a classwide punitive damages settlement.