State Farm Wants Mississippi Law Group Tossed from Katrina Case

State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. is seeking to have policyholders’ attorneys thrown off a key Hurricane Katrina insurance case because the insurer claims the Mississippi lawyers have behaved unethically, according to court papers.

State Farm already has tried to have Oxford attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs removed from a different case against the insurer, but the request was rejected by U.S. District Court Judge L.T. Senter Jr. and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Since then, Scruggs has withdrawn from most of his firm’s Katrina cases following his indictment in north Mississippi on charges he tried to bribe a judge for a favorable ruling in a dispute over legal fees.

The newly formed Katrina Litigation Group, which includes members of Scruggs’ legal team, is now handling hundreds of the cases filed on behalf of policyholders on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast.

State Farm’s motion to have KLG attorneys removed was filed Tuesday in a case that accuses the company of racketeering and fraud in its handling of Katrina claims.

In court papers, State Farm maintains that Scruggs and members of his legal team have committed “highly unethical acts” in the case, such as illicitly obtaining internal claims records, and have “irreparably perverted the litigation process.”

Scruggs has worked with two Ocean Springs sisters who helped State Farm adjust Katrina claims. The sisters, Kerri and Cori Rigsby, gave thousands of State Farm records to Scruggs and then left their jobs to work for his legal team.

Last month, a federal grand jury in Oxford, Miss., indicted Scruggs, his son and law partner Zach, and three others on charges they conspired to pay a state court judge $50,000 for a favorable ruling in a dispute with other lawyers over $26.5 million in fees.

Information from: The Sun Herald, http://www.sunherald.com

Topics Mississippi