Five Things to Know About the Latest BP Gulf Oil Spill Trial

One should be forgiven for losing track of the never-ending legal warfare over the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. With lawyers swinging back into action in federal court in New Orleans this week, here's a cheat sheet for sorting through the jurisprudential muck.

This case concerns BP's liability under the Clean Water Act. In earlier stages of a Justice Department lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier blamed the company's "gross negligence" for the eruption that killed 11 rig workers and spewed more than three million barrels of crude along the Gulf coast, from Louisiana to Florida. Now Barbier, acting without a jury, will apply a series of eight factors identified by the act to determine the pecuniary penalty. The potential price tag could range from several billion to nearly $14 billion.