BP Disaster: What If No One Is At Fault?

It is a legal practice, although perhaps not a principle, that someone or some entity, is at fault when something goes wrong. This extends from medical malpractice to car recalls to man-made disasters. The result of this approach to liability is that companies try to shift blame for an accident when they can. In the case of the Deepwater Horizon spill, this shifting involves BP plc BP, Transocean RIG, and oil service firm Halliburton HAL. There is some chance that employees at one or more of these companies broke protocol. The company or companies involved in the spill are, of course, responsible for the actions of their workers, even if those actions were “irresponsible.” How a court or jury will see that when it comes to guilt and damages is impossible to say. But there is some modest chance that men on the rig, some of whom may not have made it off the rig, or men who handled work to shut down the rig, failed to follow procedures. And, then what? To read the rest, head over to 247WallStreet.com