Mississippi Bar Forms Task Force on Heels of Scruggs Guilty Plea

One member of a task force the Mississippi Bar recently appointed to improve public confidence in the legal system said action is part of the answer.

“I think when the public sees that we’re cleaning up our own house, that will restore some measure of public confidence,” said Gulfport attorney Donald Dornan, who spoke as a private attorney.

“I can’t imagine anything worse than attempting to bribe a judge,” he said.

The task force has been created on the heels of guilty pleas from five attorneys in a judicial bribery case. And a federal judge on the Mississippi Gulf Coast cited several law firms for breaching legal ethics in Katrina insurance cases.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to bribe a judge. He faces up to five years in prison, and the Mississippi State Bar has filed a petition to disbar him.

His son, Zach Scruggs, pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony, which means he had knowledge of a felony but didn’t report it. He’s expected to be sentenced soon. He, his father and three others were originally charged with conspiring to pay a judge $50,000 in a dispute over $26.5 million in fees from a settlement of Hurricane Katrina insurance lawsuits. The judge reported the bribe overture to the FBI and worked as an informant.

The elder Scruggs’ law partner Sidney Backstrom, attorney Timothy Balducci and former Mississippi State Auditor Steve Patterson also pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges. Backstrom also faces disbarment and Balducci has given up his law license. The men were charged with conspiring to pay a judge $50,000 in a dispute over $26.5 million in legal fees.

The Mississippi Bar in Jackson has filed formal complaints against all those admitted felons in the judicial bribery case, including Scruggs, seeking their suspension and eventual disbarment. Hinds County Circuit Judge Bobby DeLaughter, who has not been charged with a crime, has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation.

Most recently, U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter Jr. has found that law firms associated with Scruggs to represent policyholders on Katrina insurance cases knew or should have known he was paying two potential witnesses, a violation of legal ethics. The bar is obligated to investigate when such complaints are brought to its attention, said general counsel Adam Kilgore, but those proceedings are confidential.

The members of the bar’s task force have agreed to speak publicly about their findings through the report they hope to issue by early fall. With a staff of only three attorneys to police the profession, the bar has been busy.

The bar’s president-elect, Gulfport attorney Rodger Wilder, and others said most attorneys and judges abide by and uphold the ethics of their profession. No matter what the task force eventually recommends, Wilder believes the discussion is healthy for the 6,700 Mississippi attorneys currently active.

“Some people would say, ‘You need to have appointed judges,’ ‘You need to have some appointed judges,’ ‘You need to have stronger campaign-finance laws,’ ” Wilder said. “I think that’s something we need to study systematically and have some discussion as to what would be best.”

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

Topics Mississippi