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Indigenous Leaders Break with Lawyer Over Pollution Retrial

Indigenous leaders from the Ecuadorean Amazon have split with their American lawyer on having their pollution case against Chevron retried in the United States, Courthouse News' Adam Klasfeld reports: "Ecuador's rainforest residents have been defending a multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron from the oil giant's counteroffensive on three continents that label the verdict an extortionate 'shakedown.'"

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is considering whether to affirm a finding that the $9.8 billion verdict rendered in Ecuador against Chevron was procured through corrupt means. Chevron opposed a suggestion by one of the Second Circuit judges during oral argument that the case be returned to New York, while attorneys representing the indigenous leaders' original counsel were amenable to it. Now, apparently some of the Ecuadorian plaintiffs oppose that idea.