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Deepwater Horizon Trial Delayed

As BP and plaintiffs continue talks.

The civil trial against BP over the disaster that took 11 lives and caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history was pushed back a week Sunday as the company continues to seek settlement with the more than 120,000 individuals and businesses that have filed suit against it. The parties said Sunday afternoon that they were still seeking a resolution outside the courts. While the announcement made no promise that a resolution was forthcoming, experts have said that the district judge trying the case would have been unlikely to agree to the delay if he didn’t believe there were grounds for a possible settlement. BP has so far made $6.1 billion in payments to parties affected by the spill and has at least $400 million more that it plans to disburse.