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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

Trailer Lawyer News: Who is Trailer Todd? Graves: I was with Goofy

Posted on April 21, 2008
Is Todd Graves denying he is a Trailer Lawyer? In this story, he says he was at Disney World on March 11, 2006, the day of the first Trailer Lawyer meeting with the Rigsby Sisters and Dickie Scruggs. Someone named Todd apparently was there, though, according to the Kerri Rigsby November 20, 2007 deposition...

Mississippi Supreme Court asked to interpret anti-concurrent cause in interlocutory appeal

Posted on April 18, 2008
Anti-concurrent cause language in first-party property insurance is, believe it or not, something I enjoy writing about even more than I do about Katrina litigation in general, Dickie Scruggs, Jim Hood or even the Trailer Lawyers. So I have been trying to squeeze in some time, not always successfully, to follow the Corban v...

April 17: Trailer Lawyer identity crisis, more on Moore

Posted on April 17, 2008
As I've said, work is the curse of the blogging class. Day job demands come first, so I had difficulty grabbing some blogging time until late April 16/early April 17, when I wrote this post. A couple must-blog-about things follow. Trailer Lawyer News Terry Ganey of the Columbia (Missouri) Tribune has a Trailer Lawyer story, which appears to include fresh quotes from an interview with Todd Graves and Tony DeWitt...

Lawyers disqualified in RICO case against State Farm

Posted on April 16, 2008
The Shows case, the big RICO lawsuit filed with fanfare and hoopla last year by the Scruggs Katrina Group, now is plaintiff-lawyerless. A federal judge, following in the footsteps of Judge Senter's disqualification of lawyers affiliated with Dickie Scruggs and the Rigsby sisters in the McIntosh case, has disqualified the Katrina(less) Litigation Group and associated counsel...

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Updates on Scruggs v. Jones hearing, April 16

Posted on April 16, 2008
THIRD UPDATE: Here is the scheduling order entered by Judge Coleman, allowing discovery on damages, and setting a hearing on that issue for November 12.Also, here is a story from Holbrook Mohr of the Associated Press, where Jim Hood "denies his predecessor delivered a warning that a wealthy lawyer would fund an opponent in last year's election if Hood didn't cooperate in Hurricane Katrina litigation...

More on the Jones v. Scruggs sanctions hearing

Posted on April 16, 2008
It's not the first time this has happened to me during the Katrina Follies, that I have trouble believing what I'm hearing. I think I am a hardened observer of these events and that nothing could shock me anymore, but then something else does...

More excellent Scruggs blogging from Parloff

Posted on April 15, 2008
When Roger Parloff has weighed in with Scruggs coverage, he has done a tremendous job, and one that is quite difficult. At this site, I assume that readers have a high degree of familiarity with the Scruggs Supernova. If they don't, well, they can type in a search for "Dickie Scruggs" and study up to become naturalized citizens of the Scruggs Nation...

Jones v. Scruggs hearing today

Posted on April 15, 2008
SECOND UPDATE: "The Monster Was Dickie Scruggs." Here's some great live blogging from NMC at folo. I'll try to find some time to comment more thoroughly on the day's events, but it won't be until tonight at the earliest...

Update on Florida Insurance Wars, April 15

Posted on April 15, 2008
As you may have heard, following an adverse decision in the Florida Court of Appeal, First District, Allstate decided to release to the public the so-called McKinsey documents, which some plaintiff lawyers claim are a smoking gun showing Allstate bad faith toward bodily injury claimants...

Rigsby sister depositions

Posted on April 14, 2008
Some have been asking that I put the Rigsby sisters' depositions all in one post for ease of access and research. OK, here they are. I've talked a lot about these depositions, and don't have the time right now to go over them in detail again. The only thing I will note for this post is to repeat that in Cori's latest deposition, she admits accessing the State Farm claims files using a list of the Scruggs plaintiffs, although she says she can't remember where she got it...

Miss. Gov.: Don't put the corn on the ground

Posted on April 11, 2008
These developments come a little too late for Tim Balducci.

DQ time: disqualification of Katrina(less) Litigation Group spreads, Rigsbys also receive skunk eye from judge

Posted on April 11, 2008
Another judge in the Southern District of Mississippi has cited Judge Senter's recent decision to disqualify the KLG in his case. Here's the opinion. The Rigsby sisters are also barred as witnesses, and all purloined documents excluded unless it can be shown they were obtained through normal discovery...

Trailer Lawyers move for stay of Ex rel. Rigsby pending disqualification decision, State Farm responds

Posted on April 11, 2008
The Trailer Lawyers yesterday filed an emergency motion for a stay of the "whistleblower" case, Ex rel. Rigsby. Here it is. They want things on hold -- probably so they don't have to waste any time on a case they may wave goodbye to -- until the motion to disqualify them is decided...

Scruggs Lite, April 11

Posted on April 11, 2008
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...

Reaction to Fifth Circuit's Broussard opinion

Posted on April 10, 2008
I base a lot of my evaluation about how good a written product is on how long it takes me to read it. In this evaluation, time is relative -- I don't mind spending an hour reading something long, as long as I am able to progress from the front to the back without a lot of problems and unnecessary stops along the way to try to decipher the trail...

Roger Parloff piece on Scruggs

Posted on April 10, 2008
This story in Fortune is outstanding, captures a lot of the excesses of the Scruggs litigation tactics. Lots of e-mails from readers this morning talking about it.

Marine on deployment to Iraq awarded $3.5 million punitive damages in dispute with USAA

Posted on April 09, 2008
I don't know that much about this case -- I only learned of it yesterday when the reporter called me -- but it has something to do with a pipe bursting under the slab of the house, I believe. In any event, the punitive damage award was a whopping $3.5 million...

Reaction to Sher case

Posted on April 09, 2008
I happened to be up late Monday night reading the Court of Appeal's decision, so it was fresh on my mind when the Louisiana Supreme Court handed down its decision Tuesday morning. Here's a copy of the Supreme Court's decision, and here's a copy of the Court of Appeal decision...

State Farm moves to dismiss Rigsby sisters' False Claims Act, disqualify lawyers

Posted on April 08, 2008
The jewel of the crumbling Scruggs Katrina Empire, the False Claims Act case Ex rel. Rigsby, is being attacked by State Farm, which says the case should be dismissed. Here's the memorandum in support of the motion to dismiss, which basically calls the Rigsby sisters parasitic late-comers to already public allegations who are attempting to cash in without having ever to ante up with anything real...

Sher: Louisiana Supreme Court reverses Court of Appeal, upholds validity of flood exclusion

Posted on April 08, 2008
I said I would be shocked if the Louisiana Supreme Court upheld the lower court's finding that the standard flood exclusion was ambiguous. So I'm not shocked. Here's the decision. Again, not much time to blog right now, I'll have more to say about this case and Broussard when I can.

Fifth Circuit reverses Broussard

Posted on April 07, 2008
Here's a pdf of the opinion, just out. Not much time right now to blog, but for now, this excerpt at the end of the case says it all: We REVERSE the judgment of the district court entering JMOL in favor of the Broussards. We REVERSE and VACATE the jury’s award of punitive damages...

Recent Cori Rigsby deposition: hoped to remain anonymous, continue adjusting for rest of life

Posted on March 28, 2008
The Rigsby sisters better hope that False Claims Act lawsuit pays off, they are just about out of meal tickets. Here is a copy of the latest Cori Rigsby deposition. It was taken in January 2008 in the Renfroe v. Rigsby lawsuit, and unfortunately a great many sections were removed -- apparently these sections are sealed because the documents the sisters took from State Farm were being discussed...

Mississippi Public Broadcasting interview

Posted on March 27, 2008
I was interviewed on MPB this morning by Karen Brown, who did a good interview about the Scruggs Scandal. I'll provide a link to the Web streaming of the program as soon as I can. UPDATE: Here's the link.

Update on Florida-Allstate confrontation, Louisiana insurance news, Scruggs

Posted on March 27, 2008
Florida insurance warsI've likened Florida lawmakers and regulators to Wile E. Coyote -- they persistently pursue failed strategies. Every time that Acme rocket backpack blows up or runs them headlong into a cliff, they strap on another. They also are somewhat like a guy who is denied a promotion and then comes home and beats the stuffing out of his dog...

Mississippi State Insurance Day

Posted on March 26, 2008
I now know the time I'll be speaking in Starkville: April 2 at 3 p.m. I'll provide the entire list of speakers soon, when it's ready to release to the public. That puts me as the last speaker of the day, so I hope everyone isn't tired and surly by that point...

Scruggs Nation, March 25: the breather

Posted on March 25, 2008
I have to conserve my time and energy between now and April 2, when I'll be speaking at the Mississippi State Insurance Day, because I need both to work on my speech. Writing jokes is hard to do and takes a lot of time, I know people are expecting some new ones...

A.M. Best podcast on Sher and Landry cases before Louisiana Supreme Court

Posted on March 25, 2008
Here's a link to a podcast interview of me by Chad Hemenway of A.M. Best about Sher, the flood-policy case and Landry, the Valued Policy Law case. Both are before the Louisiana Supreme Court, which has heard oral arguments. (The link is actually to the A...

March is Katrina/catastrophic loss month at the Insurance Law Center

Posted on March 24, 2008
Details are here in this post by Karen Yotis. I was also on the Insurance Law Center's March 21 podcast, talking about a bunch of stuff, including the Sher and Landry cases currently before the Louisiana Supreme Court, legal blogging and Scruggs...

A great new blog

Posted on March 24, 2008
I kick myself for not thinking of Tom Withers as a resource earlier in this Scruggs mess, but it may not be over, so there's still time. Tom is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, and he has started a blog on federal criminal defense practice...

Scruggs Nation, March 24: ten unanswered questions

Posted on March 24, 2008
There are more than 10, of course, way more. But these 10 will do for a starter.1. How likely do you think it was that a lawyer of the reputation of John Keker and a defendant of the wealth and notoriety of Dickie Scruggs failed to test their case before mock juries? I would say it is very unlikely, and my guess is they used more than one...

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