We urge any business or individual to have a lawyer who understands how the GCCF operates review the Gulf Oil Spill GCCF Determination Letter before accepting or rejecting an offer. We have noticed that quite often the calculations done by GCCF accountants are wrong and that many of those victimized by the Gulf Oil Spill are being short-changed. Not only are the calculations done by the GCCF sometimes wrong, but it is equally important to carefully review the “Methodology Used To Calculate Projected Revenues.” A lawyer who understands how the GCCF operates can review your Determination Letter and may be able to get the GCCF to do a recalculation based on a methodology that is more favorable to the claimant. For example, if an oysterman or fisherman had a much better year in 2008 than in 2009 for some reason, then it would be more advantageous to have the methodology rely on just the 2008 numbers for comparison rather than an average of 2008 and 2009 or even just 2009 numbers. The GCCF has shown some flexibility in this regard and if a good argument can be made as to why a single years as opposed to an average of years should be used, many of the GCCF accountants will accommodate this request and do a recalculation. The methodology used by the GCCF can be found at the top of Attachment A of the GCCF Evaluation of Claim Form.

Another area to carefully focus on is the Loss of Income Percentage (LOI %). We have noticed that the GCCF is making a lot of errors in calculating the LOI % and this is something that can have a huge impact on a victim of the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill’s claim value (Not just the Final Payment Claim Amount, but also the Interim Payment Claim). In order to make proper arguments to the GCCF in order to get the Loss of Income Percentage recalculated it is important to understand what this percentage is. It is meant to reflect the amount of saved expenses, and therefore is the percentage of revenue that represents saved costs that were not incurred due to the spill.

If you received a Final Determination Letter from the GCCF it is important to take note of the expiration date of the Final Payment Offer. This can be found on the GCCF Form 1012 which is the Election Form For Determination Letter On Lost Profits Claim.

Our Gulf Oil Spill Claims lawyers are available to discuss your determination letter at no cost to you. Call us at (888) 213-8140 or email Kevin Goldberg at [email protected].