Day: June 5, 2009

SLABBED Daily – June 5

Today’s SLABBED Daily is a mixed bag – a late one, too! First, we have a brief update on Politz v Nationwide and then a report that should bring howls from Steve.

Friday’s docket showed two new motions filed by Mrs. Politz related to Judge Walker’s what-was-he-thinking Order granting Nationwide’s request that she undergo a mental exam to prove what the law says needs no such proof – the mental anguish she suffered in Nationwide’s handling of her claim.

This difference in law and order aside, Mrs. Politz asks the Court to move the exam to a place that must feel like home to her by now, the office of her attorney, instead of the office of Nationwide’s counsel.

In her second motion, Motion for Leave to Designate Mental Health Expert, Mrs. Politz informs the Court she has selected a doctor and made an appointment to have an examination prior to the date of the Court-order exam by a doctor of Nationwide’s choosing:

Plaintiff respectfully requests that if the Court is inclined to order Mrs. Politz to be evaluated by Nationwide’s mental health expert, Plaintiff asks that she be allowed to designate and be evaluated by her own mental health professional, and that she be allowed to utilize any report generated from said evaluation during the trial of this cause as evidence and to call her mental health expert for testimony as an expert during the trial of this cause…

Since forcing Mrs. Politz to have her mental health examined is simply the latest of Nationwide’s efforts to cause Mrs. Politz mental anguish, an examination by a competent professional of her choice should be reassuring to her personally as well as give her case an unexpected boost.

AIG, however,  is giving Nationwide serious competition for this week’s Mean-Spirited Insurer Award and Steve may be one of the few not surprised by AIG’s attempt to un-endow charities. Continue reading “SLABBED Daily – June 5”

$37.5million – “pay to play” down payment

Connect the dots and you’ll see the $37.5 million the insurance industry invested in Congressional campaigns was a down payment on the industry’s  “pay to play” the regulatory game at the federal level.

“Pay to play” in 50 states may be too costly for an industry that undermined the world economy swapping worthless paper.  No doubt the  same “bright lights” that thought swapping worthless paper was an investment strategy, view consolidation of “pay to play” at the federal level as a cost-saving meansure.

The trickle down economic impact [sic] of the “pay” and the “play” going federal will be felt most in those states where the cost of competitive state-wide campaigns exceeds what the voting population can afford to contribute.

Mississippi is one of those states.  However, Commissioner Chaney who campaigned calling for the position to be appointed, is in better shape than his counterparts elsewhere.   In states with appointed commissioners, the insurance industry would only need need to pay the cost of one play – selecting the individual to fill the appointment.

Sop credits Katrina for his PhD in Hurricane.  I, on the other hand, credit the storm for my graduating summa cum laude from the School of Reality with a Specialty in Crushing Disappointments – Reuters has the story of the latest one.

Insurance industry reform will be the chief focus of a briefing scheduled for Thursday evening by Obama administration officials to financial industry lobbyists, said sources familiar with the agenda. Continue reading “$37.5million – “pay to play” down payment”

Get set for new details about the jet set. Emergent details in the Government’s case against Hugh Sibley

I have some additional docs to post but first, David Mitchell at the Advocate adds greater detail to the Government’s allegations against Hugh Sibley including a connection to Oklahoma City businessman Lee R. Snider:

A Greensburg lawyer pleaded innocent Thursday in U.S. District Court at Houston to a charge of laundering money for an international cocaine ring operating in Venezuela, Mexico and the United States, his attorney said.

William Hugh Sibley, 62, entered the initial plea before U.S. District Judge Calvin Botley around 11 a.m., said Sibley defense attorney James Manasseh, of Baton Rouge. Manasseh declined further comment………

The initial plea came as new information emerged in court and aviation records about the cocaine and cash transportation conspiracy to which federal prosecutors have linked Sibley, who goes by the first name of “Hugh.” Continue reading “Get set for new details about the jet set. Emergent details in the Government’s case against Hugh Sibley”

Nonsensical legal replies and crossing judges fraught with sanction potential: Frught v State Farm. Judge Wilkerson’s had enough of the Farm’s BS.

We posted about this case here, when we noted information from O’Keefe was used to bust State Farm’s BS in not providing docs they knew they possessed. Such unethical tactics by corporate defendants consititue the ugly underbelly of commercial litigation and State Farm is famous in legal circles for regularily engaging in these tactics.

It was clear from Judge Wilkerson’s order on the second motion to compel his patience with the Farm’s BS was wearing thin. His order on the third motion to compel sanctions State Farm and awards the plaintiff’s $600 in attorney fees. It appears as if the good Judge is also tiring of the nonsensical legal briefs he is getting from the Farm’s legal team in this case as they beclown themselves before their peers:

Defendant delayed until after the 30-day deadline for providing responses and after this motion was filed to provide responses. Defendant never filed a motion with the court requesting an extension of the deadline. When it filed its late responses, they contained objections that were largely meritless Continue reading “Nonsensical legal replies and crossing judges fraught with sanction potential: Frught v State Farm. Judge Wilkerson’s had enough of the Farm’s BS.”