Day: October 5, 2008

Convincing but not coherent – State Farm files Rebuttal to Rigsbys Response

Typical State Farm lawyering files motions with points they want to call to the attention of the Court and the public – a strategy similar to Palin’s, described somewhere as producing a convincing but not coherent performance.  (wink not included)

The most recent example is the Motion for Leave to file Excess Pages related to their Rebuttal of the Rigsbys Response to their Motion to Dismiss under Rules 12(b)(6) and 9(b) FRCP.

The Motion for Excess Pages requests that State Farm be granted eleven additional pages, which would permit State Farm a Rebuttal in support of its Motion to Dismiss not exceeding a total of fifteen pages in length.

To date, the Rigsbys have not responded in opposition to State Farm’s Motion for Excess Pages. However, State Farm acknowledges that under the Local Rules, unless their response deadline is expedited by the Court, their response, if any, is not due until October 3, 2008.

State Farm’s Rebuttal in Support of its Motion to Dismiss is due this Thursday, October 2, 2008 – one day before the Rigsbys’ deadline to respond to State Farm’s Motion for Excess Pages.

Accordingly, State Farm is in a procedural box. It must submit its Rebuttal by this Thursday, but does not have Court permission to utilize more than the four pages it has remaining under Miss. Unif. Dist. Ct. R. 7.2(E)’s thirty five page cumulative limit.

State Farm notes that the Rigsbys did not file their response in opposition to its Motion to Dismiss until 10:00 p.m. CDT on September 15, 2008.  Of course, State Farm needed to receive and review the Rigsbys’  response in order to properly evaluate its position. State Farm filed its Motion for Excess Pages the very next day, on September 16, 2008.

Accordingly, State Farm did not intentionally put itself in this procedural box; rather it is one caused by the interaction of the Rules and the timing of the Rigsbys’ filing.

Accordingly, State Farm failed to mention the impact of their own history of 11th hour timing to the Continue reading “Convincing but not coherent – State Farm files Rebuttal to Rigsbys Response”

State Senator David Baria on the House Insurance Committee's Visit to the Coast

Senator Baria serves in the minority on the GOP controled Senate Insurance Committee which has blocked every meaningful consumer friendly piece of legislation passed by the State House. I do not share his more optimistic spin on last Tuesday’s public gathering but I also do not question his commitment to his constituents in senate district 46. He wrote a good account of the gathering in his blog and evidently, in the spirit of bipartisanship, left out Commissioner Chaney’s pollyanna advice for coast consumers to shop around in the wind market of 1. For my part I wonder of the Sun Herald still feels good about endorsing Mr Chaney last year. Something tells me they are getting a case of heartburn.

The Insurance Committee of the Mississippi House of Representatives held a public forum in Biloxi last night. The event was well attended by Coast citizens and other interested individuals, including representatives of the insurance industry. Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney was among the invited speakers as was his Deputy Lee Harrell. It became clear very early into the forum that the majority of the residents in attendance were still having major problems with the acquisition of affordable insurance. There were also many individuals with disturbing stories of how their insurance company treated them in denying their claims. We have all either experienced something similar or have a friend or family member who has. It is nothing new to hear these stories. However, I was impressed with the passion with which they were told three years post-Katrina. Obviously, the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast are still hurting from not only the worst natural disaster to ever affect the U.S., but also from the insurance industry’s callous indifference in the months and years following Katrina. Add to the emotional mix the fact that insurance outside of the wind pool is virtually unattainable for us and is seldom affordable when it can be found, and you have a miserable recipe for the people of the Gulf Coast. Continue reading “State Senator David Baria on the House Insurance Committee's Visit to the Coast”

State Senator David Baria on the House Insurance Committee’s Visit to the Coast

Senator Baria serves in the minority on the GOP controled Senate Insurance Committee which has blocked every meaningful consumer friendly piece of legislation passed by the State House. I do not share his more optimistic spin on last Tuesday’s public gathering but I also do not question his commitment to his constituents in senate district 46. He wrote a good account of the gathering in his blog and evidently, in the spirit of bipartisanship, left out Commissioner Chaney’s pollyanna advice for coast consumers to shop around in the wind market of 1. For my part I wonder of the Sun Herald still feels good about endorsing Mr Chaney last year. Something tells me they are getting a case of heartburn.

The Insurance Committee of the Mississippi House of Representatives held a public forum in Biloxi last night. The event was well attended by Coast citizens and other interested individuals, including representatives of the insurance industry. Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney was among the invited speakers as was his Deputy Lee Harrell. It became clear very early into the forum that the majority of the residents in attendance were still having major problems with the acquisition of affordable insurance. There were also many individuals with disturbing stories of how their insurance company treated them in denying their claims. We have all either experienced something similar or have a friend or family member who has. It is nothing new to hear these stories. However, I was impressed with the passion with which they were told three years post-Katrina. Obviously, the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast are still hurting from not only the worst natural disaster to ever affect the U.S., but also from the insurance industry’s callous indifference in the months and years following Katrina. Add to the emotional mix the fact that insurance outside of the wind pool is virtually unattainable for us and is seldom affordable when it can be found, and you have a miserable recipe for the people of the Gulf Coast. Continue reading “State Senator David Baria on the House Insurance Committee’s Visit to the Coast”