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Insurance Law

Insurance Coverage Law Blog

Recent cases in insurance coverage matters, as well as industry developments and news.
By David Rossmiller

Post Frequency: 1.1/day

Last Entry: July 28, 2010 at 17:16:01

Zach Scruggs pleads guilty

Posted on March 21, 2008
THIRD UPDATE: Here's a copy of the transcript of Zach Scruggs' plea agreement. I heard it was available on folo and maybe other websites, but I had already ordered it by the time I heard that, so what the heck, the $21 cost of the transcript is on me...

(Zach) Scruggs Nation, March 21: All in the Family edition

Posted on March 21, 2008
A reader provided me with some outstanding research on Zach's defense team, including some stuff from my own blog. Remember, the team now includes Mike Moore, Todd Graves, Chip Robertson and Mary Winter. Graves is the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, who, according to this press release, left resigned his office on March 24, 2006...

Rigsby sisters' D.C. attorneys withdraw from Renfroe case, cite lack of ability to pay

Posted on March 20, 2008
In the Renfroe v. Rigsby case in Alabama, the Rigsby sisters have been represented by attorneys from three firms, two from Alabama and one from Washington, D.C., all paid for by Dickie Scruggs. The D.C. lawyers have now filed a motion to withdraw from the case for the following reason (I inserted the boldface to highlight the really significant part):This motion to withdraw is the result of the inability of the Rigsbys and others to pay Zuckerman Spaeder LLP's fees and expenses going forward, or to adequately satisfy existing fee and expense obligations...

(Zach) Scruggs Nation, March 20

Posted on March 20, 2008
You may have heard that Zach Scruggs, the last man standing in the Scruggs Supernova, has come out with new motions. My favorite is this one, his motion to move the trial date, which should have contained a subhead reading "Delay: the Lawyer's Best Friend," and which contains this priceless paragraph:Most significantly, based on the summonses the court sent out, members of the pool have been notified of their selection and they will, undoubtedly, have a heightened interest in this case...

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Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance seeks suspension of Judge DeLaughter

Posted on March 19, 2008
Here's a copy of the Commission's petition to the Mississippi Supreme Court. This comes from ethics complaints filed against DeLaughter by attorneys for William Roberts Wilson in the fee dispute case against Dickie Scruggs. Joey Langston, who represented Scruggs in the later stages of that investigation, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to influence DeLaughter with the offer of a federal judgeship...

(Zach) Scruggs Nation, March 19

Posted on March 19, 2008
Let's return for a moment to last week and the plea agreements of Dickie Scruggs and Sid Backstrom. We can surmise from the fact that Scruggs and Backstrom made plea agreements that Zach Scruggs also discussed a plea agreement.My working hypothesis was that one strong motivation for Dickie Scruggs to make a deal was to help get Zach out of this mess...

(Zach) Scruggs Nation, March 18

Posted on March 18, 2008
As I wrote in one of my posts yesterday, Judge Biggers' order of yesterday afternoon made it clear that the deadline for plea agreements remained March 17. Some people have asked me whether this is an absolute deadline -- for example, if Zach Scruggs wanted to enter into a plea agreement just before trial, would the judge reject this...

Scruggs Nation, March 17

Posted on March 17, 2008
If you missed my post from yesterday, go back and read it, it's got a roundup of some of the Scruggs stories of note, some stuff about Jim Hood, some Katrina litigation stuff -- it took me some time to put it together, so I hope you'll find something you like...

Yet more lawyers for Zach Scruggs

Posted on March 17, 2008
I looked back at PACER to see if there are new developments, and two new lawyers are requesting pro hac vice admittance to represent Zach Scruggs. Here they are: Edward Robertson, Jr. and Mary Winter. Haven't had much time to do any research on them, but here is a quick bio of Robertson...

Mike Moore enters an appearance as co-counsel for Zach Scruggs

Posted on March 17, 2008
Not sure exactly what this means, but I just saw this on PACER. Mike Moore, for those who don't know, is the former AG of Mississippi and a close friend of Dickie Scruggs who worked with Scruggs on the tobacco litigation and has also had a hand in Katrina litigation...

Scruggs Nation, post-Ides of March, pre-St. Patrick's Day edition

Posted on March 16, 2008
A roundup of stories about the Scruggs plea agreements, and a few comments:Hood: you can't get there from here.This Legal Newsline story by John O'Brien about Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's reaction to the Scruggs plea is hilarious. Let's look at a few excerpts (I've boldfaced some particularly amazing parts):In catching high-profile plaintiffs lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs in a judicial bribery scheme, the federal government's methods of investigation worked perfectly, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said Friday...

Scruggs Nation, March 14: beware the day before the Ides of March

Posted on March 14, 2008
There's a hearing today in Oxford on the latest motions. Someone in the comments yesterday asked what time -- 10 a.m. -- although if that pre-trial publicity was one-tenth as pervasive and inflammatory as the defense claims, I suspect he wouldn't have had to post a comment on a blog to find that out, he could have just listened to the people shouting in the street...

Scruggs Nation, the Reckoning: Dickie Scruggs pleads guilty

Posted on March 14, 2008
We'll stay on this post all day and update. Look for the latest information at the top (I got chewed out by readers last time I did this for putting the new updates at the bottom).NINTH UPDATE: This motion was filed by the government today. It asks the court's permission to turn over evidence gathered by the FBI "taint team" -- a team that separately analyzed data like computer files copied from the Scruggs Law Firm during the November FBI raid -- to the federal prosecutors in the Scruggs case...

I'm coming to Mississippi

Posted on March 13, 2008
I'm going to be speaking at Mississippi State University's Insurance Day -- I'm not sure if I'll be speaking on April 1 or April 2, but I'll get back to you soon when I clarify that. Here's a link to sign up to attend -- there's a list of the speakers...

Scruggs Nation, March 13: more motions, more folly about publicity

Posted on March 13, 2008
USA v. Scruggs has had a flurry of motions in recent days that will be argued at a hearing tomorrow, and then you know what Monday is -- last day for plea bargains. Here are the motions. Motion to sever. This motion, which is a second try at coming up with reasons why the trial of Sid Backstrom and Zach Scruggs (Zach also endorsed or joined in the motion) should be separate from that of Dickie Scruggs, contains this interesting passage:The impaneling of an “anonymous jury” is seldom used in American trials...

First party property causation, New England style

Posted on March 12, 2008
One of my friends who follows this stuff more closely than I have been able to do since the Scruggs Supernova happened has been sending me copies of court decisions on property loss causation. This is a subject I take a great deal of interest in, and I'm going to comment on the causation analysis of two recent decisions, one from New Hampshire and one from Vermont...

Hood: I will offer help if someone will do what I won't

Posted on March 12, 2008
Read this AP story on Jim Hood saying he will offer the full resources of his office to local District Attorneys if they decide to investigate and prosecute those connected to the Scruggs scandal. No one has any plans to do so, of course...

Scruggs Nation, March 11: imagining straws to grasp at

Posted on March 11, 2008
This probably makes little sense to non-bloggers, but I have always had a favorable feeling toward Zach Scruggs because of his work on the Scruggs Katrina Group blog. I thought he did a creditable job there -- the blog was not all it could have been, but then again, he had other things to do...

Let me once again recommend the Lexis Insurance Law Center

Posted on March 11, 2008
Look, I'm not saying this just because I'm on the advisory board, and I'm not saying this just because I have this post up about legal blogging, and I am not saying this just because I am as amazed as anyone that a behemoth like LexisNexis is beginning to understand the interactive possibilities of free internet content...

Louisiana homeowners face differing standards for flood insurance offset

Posted on March 11, 2008
Here's another of those great Rebecca Mowbray stories in the Times-Picayune on Katrina legal developments in Louisiana. This story discusses two different schools of thought among courts in the state when analyzing a common factual scenario -- someone had both a homeowners policy and federally backed flood insurance when Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita damage happened...

Scruggs Nation, March 10

Posted on March 10, 2008
On Friday I linked to a post at Law and More that discussed a recent American Lawyer article on Dickie Scruggs. I gave my quick take on Scruggs, without having read the article, but later that day I had a chance to read the story, by Susan Beck...

Scruggs Nation, March 7: the Wilson case lives

Posted on March 07, 2008
I wasn't sure what was going on in this story in the Clarion-Ledger, something about lawyers for William Roberts Wilson filing a motion seeking sanctions against Scruggs is about all I caught. So a reader provided me with a copy of the motion filed in Hinds County March 4, and it becomes clearer...

Scruggs Nation, March 6: anonymous jury, more sweet potatoes

Posted on March 06, 2008
In the Scruggs bribery case, Judge Biggers granted the government's request for an anonymous jury because of concerns of potential harassment and intimidation. Here's a copy of his order, and here is an excerpt, which I have broken up into paragraphs for easier reading:The court also finds that element (1) above exists in this case in that extensive publicity has been paid to this case thus far and, after the trial begins, publicity will likely increase and the names and addresses of the jurors sitting on the case would be enhanced and more likely cause attempts to contact the jurors by news media or friends or acquaintances who do not know the proper role for juror conduct, and therefore more pressure would be brought on the jurors if their names were in the public news media during the trial...

Another Balducci bribe attempt?

Posted on March 06, 2008
I had not seen this in my readings of the government evidence in the Scruggs case, but this story by Alyssa Schnugg of the Oxford Eagle is about an alleged conversation between Tim Balducci and Judge Lackey concerning a bribe in a second, unrelated matter, a DUI manslaughter case...

Rigbsy 'whistleblower' lawsuit drops three insurers, keeps State Farm

Posted on March 06, 2008
You will recall the False Claims Act lawsuit by the so-called "whistleblower" Rigsby sisters -- the ones who received no-show (or at least "very little show") jobs at $150,000 a year from Dickie Scruggs while being material witnesses in Katrina cases prosecuted by Scruggs, and while being called before a state grand jury as star witnesses...

Louisiana's Foti challenged post-departure for choices in office

Posted on March 06, 2008
As I've said before, work is the curse of the blogging class. Time is limited for blogging these days, but let's see what I can squeeze into the blog in the next few days.This Mike Kunzelman story is very interesting: former Louisiana AG Charles Foti, a prosecutor of almost mythic ineffectiveness and Mr...

Y'all Nation, March 5: can y'all be used as a singular pronoun?

Posted on March 05, 2008
We had such an interesting array of comments on the proper use and meaning of "y'all" in the (Zach) Scruggs Nation post yesterday, I took some time last night to do a little independent research on the subject. The comments overwhelmingly favor "y'all" exclusively as a plural, although a few commenters thought it might be used as a singular pronoun on occasion...

Louisiana insurance market recovering, state-run insurer has less risk

Posted on March 05, 2008
In marked contrast to the bellicose approach of Florida officials under Gov. Charlie Crist, Louisiana, in the down insurance market on the southern Coast after Hurricane Katrina, decided on the soft sell. In one way, you could say, Louisiana didn't have a lot of choice...

(Zach) Scruggs Nation, March 4: Zach Scruggs files motion to dismiss charges for alleged government misconduct before grand jury

Posted on March 04, 2008
Zach Scruggs yesterday filed a motion seeking to dismiss the charges against him (here is a copy). If this were granted, it would be huge -- with Zach out of the case, much of the government's leverage over Dickie Scruggs would disappear, and chances of a plea agreement with the elder Scruggs would drop significantly...

Anti-concurrent cause, Ontario style

Posted on March 03, 2008
I saw an interesting case on anti-concurrent cause language in a liability policy on the blog for the Cavanagh Williams firm in Ottawa. Here's a copy of the case, Appin v. Economical Ins. Co., in the Ontario Court of Appeals. The decision was handed down in mid-February...

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