by KYLE BARNETT/Louisiana Record
Mikal Watts
A group made up largely of Vietnamese-American fishermen have filed a class action lawsuit against a Texas attorney who they claim improperly named them as clients in settlement claims related to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In the lawsuit, Mikal Watts, of San Antonio–based Watts Guera LLP, is alleged to have erroneously filed claims paperwork on behalf of at least 19 individuals and businesses, mostly Vietnamese-American commercial fishermen working in the water of Southeast Louisiana.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana by a number of Vietnamese fishermen who were included on a list of nearly 43,000 claimants Watts alleged he represented in claims related to a $2.3 billion seafood fund BP set up in the wake of the 2010 oil spill.
The lawsuit comes only weeks after Watts was sued by BP which claims to have found evidence that he falsified social security numbers for a portion of the claimants he claimed to represent in settlements, some of which were also found to be deceased.
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