Senior
Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to:
* Senior (name), a surname ...
United States district judge
The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...
of the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (in case citations, E.D. La.) is a United States federal court based in New Orleans.
Appeals from the Eastern District of Louisiana are taken to the United States Court of A ...
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree from
Southeastern Louisiana University
Southeastern Louisiana University (Southeastern) is a public university in Hammond, Louisiana. It was founded in 1925 by Linus A. Sims as Hammond Junior College. Sims succeeded in getting the campus moved to north Hammond in 1928, when it became ...
in 1966 and a
Juris Doctor
The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law
and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...
law clerk
A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (in case citations, E.D. La.) is a United States federal court based in New Orleans.
Appeals from the Eastern District of Louisiana are taken to the United States Court of A ...
from 1970 to 1971. Barbier was in private practice in New Orleans from 1971 to 1998.
Federal judicial service
On May 19, 1998, Barbier was nominated by President
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (in case citations, E.D. La.) is a United States federal court based in New Orleans.
Appeals from the Eastern District of Louisiana are taken to the United States Court of A ...
vacated by Okla Jones. Barbier was confirmed by the
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and ...
on September 28, 1998, and received his commission on October 1, 1998. Barbier assumed
senior status
Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...
January 1, 2023.
Notable cases
In August 2010, he was appointed to hear the cases in the
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill (also referred to as the "BP oil spill") was an industrial disaster that began on 20 April 2010 off of the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect, considered ...
. It is expected that at least 300 cases will be consolidated in his court.
On November 14, 2011, Barbier ruled that BP, the company that leased the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, must face federal maritime lawsuits by Alabama and Louisiana. On September 4, 2014, he further found BP to be grossly negligent in the spill, attributing 67% of the blame to the company. As a result, the company may be liable for as much as $18 billion in fines under the
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters; recognizing the responsibiliti ...