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BOISE (AFP)--BP PLC (BP, BP.LN) came face-to-face Thursday with victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill during a first court hearing into the case, which is likely to become one of the nation's biggest civil trials. The hearings in Boise, Idaho, were examining whether lawsuits from some 200 plaintiffs can be consolidated into one case in the wake of the three-month crisis, and where the case should be heard. The plaintiffs and defendants all had different ideas on where the trial should be held, with many urging it to be staged in Louisiana or Alabama, two of the Gulf states hit hardest by the spill. British energy giant BP however argued in favor Houston, Texas, headquarters of the oil industry and where it has set up its control rooms to coordinate its response to what has been called the nation's worst environmental disaster. "The better access to evidence is in Houston. The key evidences are by far in Houston," BP attorney Andrew Langan told a packed courtroom. But the plaintiffs hit back that the case should be heard closer to home, in the locations hit hardest by the oil spill. "The oil spill is a threat to our culture. We provide 50 percent of the seafood in this country," argued attorney Russ Hermann, representing shrimpers, hotels, food processors and boat captains. "This place that has suffered the most impact. That's why we want the pre-trial in the Eastern District of Louisiana," he maintained. A decision is expected around two weeks after the hearing, but the 90-minute session gave trial lawyers a test run for the arguments they will make during legal proceedings that could stretch out for years. Law professor Richard Nagareda said the proceedings before the seven federal judges of the Multidistrict Litigation Panel could in theory choose to send a consolidated case to any U.S. federal court. But "the panel may very well be inclined to choose a judge located around the Gulf Coast area," said Nagareda, a professor at Vanderbilt University. The hearing brought together a wide array of people and players linked to the disaster triggered by an April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig, some 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana. Eleven people were killed in the explosion, which caused the platform to sink two days later. Since then, an estimated three to 5.2 million barrels (117.6 million to 189 million gallons) gushed out into the Gulf. Joining BP in court were Transocean Ltd. (RIG), which leased the rig to the British energy giant, and Cameron International, which manufactured the blow-out preventer, the device which should have shut down the well but failed to work properly. Plaintiffs range from the families of the 11 workers killed in the explosion to Gulf fishermen whose catch has been contaminated by the spill, threatening them with financial ruin. "It's clear to me that this panel is clearly listening carefully to all the arguments, they are concerned about the complexity of the litigation and I expect that whatever judge they choose, it will be with a lot of thought," Kevin Dean, a plaintiff's attorney from South Carolina, told AFP. Attorney Elizabeth Cabraser, representing fishermen, oystermen and property owners, told AFP there was a strong argument for holding the trial in the affected Gulf states. "It would be very difficult to explain to the average person why the case has been (heard) in the oil industry's headquarters hometown. People would have a hard time getting past that." (END) Dow Jones Newswires July 29, 2010 14:56 ET (18:56 GMT)