The Weather Channel Michael Kunzelman Published: Feb 25, 2013, 8:51 PM EST Associated Press
Grand Isle State Park, La.
Oil washed up on the beach at Grand Isle State Park, Louisiana, June 5, 2010. (Matthews D. White/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS -- Nearly three years after a deadly rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico triggered the nation's worst offshore oil spill, a federal judge in New Orleans is set to preside over a high-stakes trial for the raft of litigation spawned by the disaster.
Barring an 11th-hour settlement, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier will hear several hours of opening statements Monday by lawyers for the companies involved in the 2010 spill and the plaintiffs who sued them. And the judge, not a jury, ultimately could decide how much more money BP PLC and its partners on the ill-fated drilling project owe for their roles in the environmental catastrophe.
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