Unlikely Venue for Hearing to Decide Which Jurisdiction Will Oversee BP Civil Lawsuits

Boise, Idaho will be the venue tomorrow for a special panel of seven federal judges, sitting as U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, to consider the question of where the lawsuits against BP will be tried.  According to a report in Reuters, the judges will consider which U.S. court or courts will oversee the hundreds of spill-related civil lawsuits brought by injured rig workers, fishermen, investors and property owners, and before which judge.  The scene should be memorable.  A Houston lawyer joked to Reuters, “There will be more lawyers in that courtroom than exist in the entire city of Boise put together. It’s going to be a circus.”