BP has not paid 63 percent of claims Mississippians filed for damages from the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster, said Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood in a statement yesterday.
"It is unfortunate that, despite all its promises about taking care of our residents on the coast, BP is still holding 6,050 actionable claims," Hood said.
Hood said that BP has paid $28.6 million in claims to date, mostly for property damage and wage loss.
"BP is claiming they haven't yet denied a claim, when the truth is, they've only closed a couple of dozen cases," Hood said. "They're skewing the statistics in their favor. They need to move their priority to getting cases resolved and folks paid so we can evaluate just how much they mean it when they say they're going to make everything right again. BP has to step up and get this process moving faster for those in Mississippi who are victims of this devastating oil spill."
Gov. Haley Barbour praised BP's response during his July 29 speech at the Neshoba County Fair. He said that the state did not need to file a lawsuit against the company because they were paying claims in a timely manner.
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