“We've been in New Orleans for a little over a year,” said Robb Helt, Co-Founder of Litigation Resource Group. “It's the biggest case that I'm sure the United States will probably ever see. It's certainly the biggest that they've ever seen,”
On April 20, 2010 an oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killed 11 people, and then triggered the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history. 205 million gallons of oil poured into the ocean.
The federal government, several states, and others are suing.
“The lawyers number in the hundreds of lawyers that are working on this thing every day,” said Don Godwin, lead trial lawyer.
Helt works for Godwin Lewis PC, a law firm that represents Halliburton Company, one of the defendants in the case. Helt and his team are responsible for technology used in the trial and more than 1,000,000 documents.
“At any point during the trial can look to me at any time and ask for any one of those 125,000,000 documents and I have to be able to get to it in less than three seconds,” said Helt.
Helt had to hire extra staff to handle all of the work. “For me it's kind of like that small town guy who gets to get on the national stage and it's something that we're prepared for for years,” he said.
Attorneys say there are billions of dollars at stake. The first phase of the trial is expected to run through May.
Litigation Resource group also worked on the West Memphis Three case.