Ken Feinburg and his Gulf Coast Claims Facility, Promises and Lies from the Disaster Czar

I haven't seen this anywhere else, and I did a search. Much like the aftermath of Katrina, once the national press has moved on, the misery remains, but goes largely unreported.
The people on the Gulf Coast have been waiting, many for months for some relief from the devastation to the regional economy that they have endured this entire summer. I've been down here visiting relatives (I visit every summer) and I can personally attest to a dramatic difference in the economic activity in the area. The GCCF was created and tasked with the goal of paying out BP's claims for businesses and individuals economically impacted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and they came on like gangbusters promising a speedy and generous process.

Feinberg has promised that all individual claims will be processed — accepted or rejected — within 48 hours and all business claims within seven days.

washingtonindependent.com...
What people are finding instead is a process slower and less responsive than the original process when BP was handling claims themselves. And he has apologized. But instead of learning from his mistake is still out on the PR trail making more false promises.

www.wkrg.com...

His handling of the 9/11 compensation fund was widely criticized as well and has been called a 'war of attrition" against the families of the victims.

kennysideshow.blogspot.com...

As I watch my friends and family here on the Gulf Coast wait for claim payments, try to keep businesses open, pay credit card bills they've been forced to live on, pay mortgages, knowing full well they won't truly be compensated for the destruction done to their lives, it feels like a war of attrition here as well. Like he's trying to starve them out. Make them more pliable and accepting of whatever he decides their destroyed lifestyles are worth. Why is this guy the arbiter of the worth of human life? Don't we have courts for that? Anyone with any more information on the man, and possible reasons his fingers are in every "disaster pie" imaginable (I believe he was also involved in Katrina) please share your information.

i can't contribute anything but my concurrance that the man will flabbergast someone while talking in circles...
just like Greenspan did in his congressional testimonys... "Baffle them with BS"" is the working protocol

Thank you. I couldn't for the life of me recall this mans name. Can't rule out mental self defense. He is the same guy who was suppose to get some of the bail out money from banks & companies who gave execs. huge bonuses. His ruling for many of those companies was he didn't intend to pursue repayments because the shame of it should be punishment enough. If only he was speaking of people who actually have a sense of shame. I would say they smiled all the away to the banks, but they ARE the banks.

People in the gulf region don't stand a chance with this guy in charge. I would also like to know how he keeps getting put in charge of these things. If he could even put a happy face on this mess it would be a miracle.

Here are more of the man's own words. Which make no sense whatsoever. It's like he thinks we're unthinking children without the capacity to employ simple logic.

“I don’t need to hire more people. It’s not a resource issue. It’s an internal ability of us to process claims as fast as we can. Simply throwing more people at the problem won’t solve it,” Feinberg said.

www.postonpolitics.com...

How exactly does this make any sense? If he can manage to process 1000 claims a day with 200 adjusters, why wouldn't hiring more adjusters speed up the process? If not 2000 a day with 400 adjusters, maybe 3500? 3000? An improvement at any rate. His refusal to hire more adjusters tells me this is very likely a war of attrition against the people of the Gulf Coast.

I'm very disappointed that very few people on ats seem to care about this. But what can you do? It's human nature to move on once the drama of a disaster is no longer compelling and immediate. I'll nonetheless continue to update this thread for any that might be in the same boat as my friends and family. Wish them luck. They're broke and barely getting by.

It is really no different than the workers compensation process, which is a war of attrition if it goes to court and you do not accept whatever settlement offered or if they contest the claim from the start.
In the industry an attorney friend calls it "playing hardball" with the claimant and it is done solely to try and break the claimant.
This is no different and the system will only benefit those who can afford to wait it out or with token small payments for show. The real goal is cost mitigation not compensation.
N.

reply to post by joechip

Don't be disappointed. There are a lot of people here who are unwilling to move on to the next 'event'. This event isn't over & won't be any time soon. It's just that there is so much to follow every day. You are going to have a lot more to say over the next few weeks. So hang in there.

The entire Gulf, all of us really, are in my prayers everyday. I would suggest your friends team up with others & combine their resources. It may not be comfortable. It certainly won't be fun. But they will have a chance. Before this is over we may all be sharing resources.

Here's a link where affected parties may "grade" the performance of the GCCF in this claims process. At this point 70% give the GCCF a failing grade. The overwhelming majority of claims according of the respondents are "still pending."

bp-claims-report.com...

The new website has an entire page devoted to promises Kenneth Feinberg made about the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Evans said, "Based on what I've read in the news, it sounds as if the GCCF hasn't delivered what was promised. I wanted to know what real people who filed real claims would say, so the idea for a BP Claims Report Card was born.

www.prweb.com...

Okay, now he's claiming the backlog is caught up with, and that older claims have been processed. A lie.

news.yahoo.com...

I know personally of claims made a month ago that are still "under review." The same status they had a day after the application was filed. And I'm sure these aren't exceptions. He lies and lies and lies some more. You'd think he'd just shut up already. Unless the constant lying serves a purpose, maybe more than just deflecting the criticism. Maybe his lying mouth is intentionally causing frustration, so that people become even more disgusted and stop expecting anything from the process. And give up. And move away. To a place where the economy hasn't been completely destroyed.
You can't hold a repeat liar to any standard whatsoever. He'll just follow one lie with and apology and another lie.

Thus far, I've only focused on the lag in payments. Apparently, there's an even bigger problem. After waiting far too long, businesses are reportedly getting much, much less than the amount needed to cover their losses. I guess Mr. Feinburg's initial promise of "quick and generous" payments means "slow and stingy" payments. But maybe he's got a point, no national media attention anymore, and the continued lack of interest in this thread tells me that public pressure (except from the crippled coast) is nonexistent.


blog.al.com...

I'll post if anything changes, or if nothing does. Will anyone care?

Relative rec. adequate compensation. Better late than never, and life goes on...

wow. I never thought I'd see this. A judge has determined that the GGCF is NOT independent of BP! I knew it.

www.google.com...

Professional insurance adjusters have been all but locked out of this process. BP apparently just hired whoever and called them something else; "evaluators" or something, ostensibly to get around state licensing laws. There seems to be a lot of information on the catastrophe adjuster sites that probably isn't widely known. I have this one bookmarked

dimechimes.wordpress.com...

enter BP oil in the search box

also

www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com

might have some helpful information

Hope this helps!