One Year Later, Gulf Oil Spill Continues to Impede Gulf Progress – Page 2 – Black Enterprise

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One Year Later, Gulf Oil Spill Continues to Impede Gulf Progress

  • Claims
    BP has received 505,161 claims, but they’ve only paid out $3.9 billion to 177,937 to claimants and to a separate fund for real estate brokers and agents. For more than two-thirds of the people who have filed claims, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has failed to process their claims according to the timeline that was set forth at public forums and on web sites, says John Jopling, a managing attorney, at the Mississippi Center for Justice.
  • There have also been complaints about a lack of specificity about why claims are being denied. “When a client is told that their documentation is insufficient, they are not told why it is insufficient,” says Jopling. “If they don’t think that what you sent is sufficient, they need to identify why it is deficient and tell you what else you can send so that you and your lawyer can try to meet whatever standard they are applying. But they don’t even say what that standard is.”
  • It also appears that the Gulf Coast Claims Facility isn’t paying many of the service industry claims, says Jopling, referring to cocktail waitresses, casino table dealers, people who provide spa services, and other hourly wage earners. These are individuals who weren’t directly employed in the seafood industry, but who suffered from a reduction of income when tourism decreased after the oil spill.
Marcia is a multimedia content producer focusing on technology at Black Enterprise Magazine. In this capacity she writes and assigns stories to educate readers about social media; digital integration; gadgets, apps, and software for business and professional development; minority tech startups; and careers in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In 2012, she received two Salute to Excellence Awards from the National Association of Black Journalists and was recognized by Blacks in Technology (BiT) as one of the Top 10 Black achievers in the tech arena for 2011 at SXSW in Austin, Texas. She has spoken about technology on panels for New York Social Media Week, at The 2012 Rainbow/PUSH Wall Street Summit, as well as at Black Enterprise'ss Entrepreneurs Conference and Women of Power Summit. In 2011, SocialWayne.com chose her as one of 28 People of Color Impacting the Social Web, and through crowdsourcing she was listed as one of BlackWeb2.0's/HP's 50 Most Notable African American Tastemakers in Social Media and Technology for 2010. Since taking on the role of Tech editor in September 2010, she has conceived and produced five cover stories on Technology and/or STEM and countless articles, videos, and slideshows online.

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