Billion-Dollar Katrina Trial a Go: Golden State Lawyers Prepare to Blow In to Big Easy
By Alison Frankel
March 21, 2009
On Friday, New Orleans federal district court judge Stanwood Duval, Jr., denied an attempt by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to throw out a suit brought by New Orleans property owners who allege that a Corps-built navigation canal is responsible for the devastation to their homes and businesses after Hurricane Katrina. Judge Duval's ruling--the fourth time he's refused government efforts to have the case dismissed--clears the way for a bench trial to begin April 20.The trial will bring some interesting characters to town. (Not that that's anything unusual for New Orleans.) A New Orleans lawyer, Joseph Bruno, is liaison counsel in the case, a consolidated litigation in which more than 400,000 property owners have filed claims. But lead counsel is Pierce O'Donnell of L.A.'s O'Donnell & Associates, an outspoken entertainment and environmental litigator. And also in the consortium of firms representing claimants (along with lawyers from Louisiana and Florida), are a high-profile pair of California plaintiffs lawyers: Thomas Girardi of L.A.'s Girardi & Keese and Joseph Cotchett of San Francisco's Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy.
In the April 20 trial, which is expected to last about a month, Judge Duval will consider the claims of six test plaintiffs. The New York Times reports that the government has said total damages for all of the 400,000 property owners in the case may be as much as $100 billion--which would make the case the biggest in U.S. history.
Seems like a perfect fit for O'Donnell, Girardi, and Cotchett.
