Insurance Law

Scruggs Lite, April 11

By David Rossmiller

This post really doesn't have the juice to deserve a Scruggs Nation title.  So as not to dilute the quality of my Scruggs Nation trademark, I'll use "Scruggs Lite" for stuff where I'm too tired/busy to hit the high notes.  

Knock, knock

-- This is almost past the point where I care anymore, but this Guilty but Innocent schtick of Zach Scruggs is starting to wear thin.  This is like hearing one too many knock-knock jokes from that neighbor kid -- I'm sorry, but I can't pretend it's cute anymore, it's just starting to get really annoying. Here's a story from Anita Lee of the Sun Herald about the most recent thing, where he says in a document filed with the Mississippi Supreme Court that, like his father, he won't fight the Bar's efforts to suspend him indefinitely. Here's the story's lede:

 Attorney Zach Scruggs apologized to the state Supreme Court and to his fellow attorneys and Mississippians for his role in a judicial bribery case, saying an earlier objection to disbarment was meant to give him time to straighten out his clients' affairs.

Wouldn't you love to know what clients' affairs had to be straightened out, such that with an open plea where Judge Biggers can wind up on him and drive him 450 feet with a Louisville Slugger if he cares to, he would risk looking foolish, arrogant , devious, manipulative, petulant, defiant and clueless all at the same time? Here's a copy of the document filed with the state Supreme Court.

Quote, unquote

-- I love this post at the Fraud Files.  Looks like others are adopting my quotation marks for the "whistleblower" Rigsby sisters.   

Ex rel. Rigsby: Trailer Lawyer lawsuit

-- This Rebecca Mowbray story in the Times-Picayune, about State Farm's motion to dismiss Ex rel. Rigsby or disqualify the Trailer Lawyers, has a great quote from attorney Allan Kanner near the end of the story:

With the problems in the Rigsby suit, the Branch Consultants, the former insurance adjusters who filed the New Orleans whistleblower suit, have asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate their case.

Their attorney, Allan Kanner, said that State Farm is playing "musical chairs" with the judicial system in filing a motion to dismiss the Rigsby suit. Because State Farm and other insurers argued six months ago in New Orleans that the Branch suit shouldn't stand because the allegations about the flood program were covered in Mississippi, the company shouldn't now be allowed to argue that the Mississippi suit is deficient in supporting allegations about the flood program.

"This proves that Judge Beer should not have listened to State Farm in his court when they said, 'The Mississippi court will deal with this.' I think it's outrageous," Kanner said. "The headline should be, 'State Farm in favor of frivolous lawsuits when they provide corporate immunity.' " 

I like to see it where lawyers get how to deal with the media -- reporters don't have the space to print the blah blah blah attorneys pawn off on judges and each other, they need interesting quotes to sell stories.   

Coming Monday

A few people have been bugging me about putting all the Rigsby sisters' depositions in one easy to find and easy to access post.  Sitting around loading a bunch of e-files that I've already loaded in other posts is probably among my least favorite aspects of blogging, but I think this would indeed be a valuable thing for readers.  A few parts of the depositions, I may not have posted previously.  Be warned, Kerri's latest is under seal, so it won't be among them.

Full post as published by Insurance Coverage Law Blog on April 11, 2008 (boomark / email).