The battle between Big Oil and the states and municipalities suing them for the purported climate-related damage caused by carbon emissions is focused, for now, on the potentially pivotal question of whether the lawsuits should be heard in state or federal court. Next month, the United States Supreme Court will hear one of these growing number of cases. The defendant oil companies in the case, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and the like, are seeking the right to appeal a federal court’s decision to remand the case back to the state court where Baltimore originally filed its suit.
Plaintiff’s attorneys generally prefer state court, convinced it gives them a better chance of hitting the jackpot. The trial lawyers who typically litigate these climate cases on behalf of state and local governments are no exception. They believe that savvier federal judges will be more likely to dismiss their tenuous cases and that the composition of federal juries and the consistency of federal courts also make huge verdicts less likely.
