Barring an eleventh-hour settlement, BP is set to unleash another unchecked torrent on the Gulf Coast that will require many days to solve. This time, however, the action won't be at the bottom of the Gulf, but in federal court on Poydras St. And it might even be more gross.

The owner of the Deepwater Horizon pleaded guilty in federal court today, marking the second Big Oozy culprit to stand before a judge and admit guilt in the 2010 oil disaster. In entering the criminal pleading, Transocean LLC agreed to pay $400 million in Clean Water Act, and submit to five years' probation.U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo formally accepted the settlement, and imposed the sentence on the Switzerland-based submersible rig company.

BP already acknowledged its criminality for the Big Oozy. Today, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon comes clean. Transocean agreed to enter a guilty plea to a criminal charge for the 2010 disaster, and pay $1.4 billion in settlement money to the feds, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. One billion dollars worth of settlement money will go toward paying for Clean Water Act penalties. The Swiss company promised to shell out another $400,000 for settling civil and criminal penalties.

Morris Bart's commercials might be a tad overblown, but the multibillion-dollar companies that operate offshore oil rigs take personal injury lawyers like him seriously. A little too seriously, in fact, according to the results of a new independent federal investigation.

Once, Transocean and BP were a match made in heaven. While the drilling Colossus' Deepwater Horizon rig bore into the Gulf floor, the British oil behemoth collected the crude. Then, Transocean's famed rig exploded, and the pair's visions of a long life together slipped through their fingers like an oiled pelican.Signs point to an ugly divorce. After BP blamed everyone for the explosion but BP, Transocean struck back yesterday with their own report that pins the whole thing on BP. Guess they should've signed a prenup.

There's been much talk of the missing oil and the evasive claim checks. But whatever happened to the rig workers who were actually on the Deepwater Horizon when it exploded? Well, there's word from at least one such employee today. Charles Cochran is suing BP, Transocean and other companies involved in the expedition to drill oil from the Gulf. He is claiming the rig manufacturer had an "evil motive or intent" in putting the deepwater drilling rig together negligently. According to Courthouse News Service, Cochran filed a complaint in federal court stating that as a result of being thrown across his cabin as the rig exploded, he "permanently and totally physically, functionally and anatomically disabled, impaired and disfigured" as a result of the explosion. 

by Arielle Schecter

Explosion and fire alarms are regularly turned off aboard oil rigs so as not to disturb workers' sleep, according to a Transocean technician's testimony before an investigative committee last week. False alarms are apparently common enough aboard oil rigs to warrant the disabling of the sound and light alarms that would otherwise communicate the presence of fire and explosive or toxic gas. The technician also indicated that some of the equipment aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig was faulty and outdated, referring to one on-board computer as the "blue screen of death." Anyone who's encountered such a crash on their office PC could understand why you wouldn't necessarily want to wake up at 3am to the sounds of an exploding ship, especially when you could just sleep through that baby.