Attorney dives into the muddy spill battle

Tampa attorney Tom Young believes the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has sold out some smaller chambers in a dispute over the multibillion-dollar BP oil spill settlement.

Now Young, on behalf of eight chambers, including the Charlotte County Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce of Cape Coral, has taken his objections to the U.S. Supreme Court. Young, in a brief filed in October, says the local chambers want to “inform the Justices of misstatements made by their parent organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in that organization's filing in support of BP and the company's attempt to renege on its own settlement agreement.”

BP contends attorneys and businesses, mostly in Louisiana and Florida, have abused the settlement by making more than $600 million in claims over losses with no legitimate connection to the 2010 spill. The oil firm wants the settlement overturned or restructured — a hope many legal experts consider a long shot. BP, after being denied by lower courts in New Orleans, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to the hear case.