When the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded in 2010 and spewed many millions of gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the disastrous spill damaged the economy, devastated the environment and required thousands of regular people to help clean it up. Those hired workers picked up tar balls on the beach, deployed booms from boats to soak up oil and rescued injured wildlife.

Many of them got sick, but a settlement was supposed to help.

BP agreed to pay workers who got ill after exposure to oil and a chemical dispersant used to break it up. Early on, the settlement was praised by attorneys for workers and BP as a fair solution that would provide money to victims without placing too much burden on them to prove their claims.