Major Exxon Valdez payout to begin this month; check the list to see how much money you'll get

A federal judge has approved the start of what has been described as the final distribution of money from the Exxon Valdez case.

About $100 million will be paid to thousands of commercial fishermen and other plaintiffs in the case, with direct deposits to start by the end of this month and check mailings to begin by mid-December, says the Seattle law firm handling the Exxon Valdez money. The payout is expected to take several weeks.

This is the latest round of payments in what has been a lengthy process to dispense roughly $1 billion in winnings and interest generated through the civil suit brought after the 1989 oil spill.

This final distribution almost completes the process, though for various reasons it will take months or even years longer to dispose of the last dollar.

Here is the 895-page list showing how much each claimant can expect to receive in the coming weeks, before deduction of attorney fees.

Deckboss also recommends reading federal Judge H. Russel Holland's order approving the final distribution.

The judge tells a couple of persistent claimants still fighting to grab millions from the pool to just shut up and go away.

He also explains an unfortunate but apparently unavoidable situation in which some cannery workers won't get as much Exxon Valdez money as they should have, while others were overpaid.

Here are the Exxon Valdez payment lists!

As Deckboss reported over the weekend, the administrator of the Exxon Valdez lawsuit winnings is preparing to make a large "final distribution."

Depending on the outcome of certain remaining issues in court, the administrator intends to pay claims according to one of these three very long lists:

Scenario 1 list
Scenario 2 list
Scenario 3 list

Click on each list to find your name and the possible amount of money you can expect, before deduction of attorney fees.

For more information, click here.

$100 million 'final distribution' nears in Exxon case

After nearly two years of handing out winnings from the Exxon Valdez oil spill case, the court-appointed administrator of the process is now talking about a "final distribution."

Lynn Sarko lays out the plan in this 15-page declaration.

Unless you're just itching to decipher this complex document yourself, let me give you some highlights:

• The final distribution will be big, more than $128 million.

• As in past rounds, this distribution will go out in stages. Fishermen and other plaintiffs with no holds on their claims will get their money first. The initial release will be around $100 million.

• Payments could come in December, but January is more likely.

• People in almost claim categories will share in the final distribution.

• Sarko, the administrator, reckons it'll take until 2014 to fully wrap up this case. That is, for example, to deal with claims that have multiple liens against them, to work out disputes among fishing partners over how to divide a claim, or to handle instances of bad addresses or checks never cashed.

• Any "residual funds" will be distributed by year-end 2013.

One final note: Lists for the final distribution showing the amount each claimant is due (before deduction of attorney fees) have been filed in federal court in Anchorage. Normally I would post these lists, but this time Deckboss can't afford the considerable cost to download them from the Pacer court records database. I'll get them somehow.

Anyway, looks like the end of the Exxon Valdez ordeal is finally on the horizon.