Hood wants BP suit to be tried in state, not federal, court
Attorney General Jim Hood said Mississippi’s best hope is to keep a pending lawsuit against BP over the 2010 oil spill in state court, but he fears it could get bogged down in federal court.
Last week, Hood filed a lawsuit against BP on Friday in Harrison County Circuit Court. He said in a meeting with the Sun Herald on Wednesday he’ll fight any efforts to have that case moved to federal court, which is a tactic he said corporations have often employed on state claims. It’s likely the cases would become bogged down there, which would allow the company to drag the case out, the attorney general said.
“They always try to move you,” Hood said. “All of the big companies, they try to get you to federal court and get you in New Orleans, where you just sit there and can’t do anything. Alabama and Louisiana haven’t been able to do anything (in federal court). They’re sitting in on that trial and the judge won’t even let them ask questions …. They are going to try to (get) us into that.”
Sun Herald
4/24
Magnolia Tribune
