gilyard himself, along with the firm helped design bp's original settlement plan. >> we were involved international negotiations. we felt we were creating a butterfly, but it's been morphed into a buzzard. >> we were told that we weren't effected by the oil spill. we weren't a tourism related business because we were considered wholesale. their methodology was such we weren't considered tourism. we fought back to no avail. fine, we'll take your formula. >> they would appeal virtually everything ed. we had an appeal going up to the fifth circuit almost every two months. >> we were at the point we needed some relief. >> sure. >> and decided that was better than continuing to fight. we just fine. we'll take your number. >> then they ballked on that? >> they filed an appeal and stopped all of the process. since then it's now five years post oil spill and we're still waiting for the restitution. >> according to the official court authorized deep water horizon claims center, nearly 300,000 total claims have been submitted for economic and property damages from the spill. just over 80,000 cl