I noted this story in today’s Sun Herald along with some new case filings in the RICO case against State Farm. One of the recent rulings rejects State farm’s arguments against amending the complaint, especially their unsubstantiated charges of ethical breaches on part of the Katrina Litigation Group. For the sake of the defendants I hope they come up with better defenses for the trial to rebut some of the more damning evidence in possession of the Plaintiff’s such as Forensic Engineering’s computer hard drive than Kerri Rigsby’s sex life.
It is worth noting that buried in the Dickie Scruggs case publicity was a little noticed news story about Forensic flipping and cutting a deal with the Katrina Litigation Group in exchange for their cooperation. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say about their part in this alleged criminal racketeering enterprise.
I have updated the Katrina Insurance Case Documents page to include the Shows case and added files to McIntosh. Please bear with us while we build our data base. Without further commentary on my part here is today’s Anita Lee’s Sun Herald story on Shows:
A lawsuit that Dickie Scruggs and his Scruggs Katrina Group filed for 22 policyholders against State Farm is moving forward in U.S. District Court.
Don Barrett of Lexington took over as lead attorney on the case after Scruggs stepped down in December 2007 because of his indictment on judicial bribery charges. Policyholders led by Glenda Shows of Pascagoula accuse State Farm of engaging in racketeering, conspiracy and fraud with vendors to deny legitimate Katrina claims.
State Farm denies the charges, seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed. Dismissal would mean each policyholder would have to file an individual lawsuit against the company, drop their cases or settle their claims.
State Farm also accuses Barrett and other policyholder law firms, re-formed as the Katrina Litigation Group, of unethical conduct, seeking to have them removed from the case. KLG attorneys have rebutted those claims in court filings.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Linda R. Allen has decided to allow KLG to amend the Shows lawsuit. This will allow KLG to refine its claims before the presiding judge, William H. Barbour Jr., decides if the lawsuit should proceed to trial.
Allen set trial for late October, but the case could be delayed if Barbour decides KLG should be removed.
State Farm also has asked that KLG be removed from cases pending before federal judges in Gulfport. State Farm filed its original objection to the policyholders’ attorneys when they were led by Scruggs.