Lawyers seeking to enforce an $18 billion environmental damages judgment against Chevron in Ecuador have asked Southern District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to recuse himself.

In the latest salvo in what has become a worldwide legal and public relations battle, two attorneys allege that Judge Kaplan has expressed “prejudicial and untenable conclusions without a trial or an evidentiary hearing” and has “lost all semblance of impartiality” in the case.