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According to Anita Lee in the Sun Herald:

Ocean Springs whistle-blowers are dropping three major insurance companies from a lawsuit filed over Katrina claims handling, choosing to focus on State Farm insurance companies as they press for damages under the federal False Claims Act.

Attorneys for the whistle-blowers Cori and Kerri Rigsby, who are sisters, expect a federal judge to approve the request that Allstate, Nationwide and USAA be dismissed from the lawsuit. …

Before we go on: the Legal for this kind of suit, “qui tam action,” comes from the phrase Qui tam pro domino rege quam pro si ipso in hac parte sequitur (“Who sues on behalf of the King as well as for himself”). As Black’s Law Dictionary explains, a qui tam lawsuit is

brought by an informer, under a statute which establishes a penalty for the commission or omission of a certain act, and provides that the same shall be recoverable in a civil action, part of the penalty to go to any person who will bring such action and the remainder to the state or some other institution. It is called a “qui tam action” because the plaintiff states that he sues as well for the state as for himself.

Now in this one, reports Anita, the Rigsby sisters “claim State Farm used biased vendors to blame Katrina damage on tidal surge covered by federal flood insurance in order to avoid paying claims for wind damage,” and they stand to gain up to 30% of any damages assessed if they can prove fraud on the defendants’ part. Along with State Farm, their other remaining targets are “seven engineering firms that assessed damage for the insurance company, a State Farm claims manager and the couple who employed the sisters as claims adjusters” (i.e., the Renfroes).

Why dismiss Allstate, Nationwide, and USAA now? “We wanted to focus our case and make it as detailed as possible against State Farm,” their attorney Anthony DeWitt, a Missourian who specializes in False Claims Act cases, tells Anita.

Maybe it’s just me, but that sounds like the spin of someone whom Dickie Scruggs has left holding a bag. Dickie filed this qui tam for the Rigsbys, remember, but “is no longer active in the case because he faces unrelated charges involving bribery of a state court judge. DeWitt said he expects that Scruggs will at some point officially withdraw, as he did from lawsuits being pursued on behalf of Coast policyholders.”

We might surmise why Dickie has yet neglected to make his withdrawal official, but not only has he mummed up, (as you’ll recall) Southern District of Mississippi U.S. Attorney Dun Lampton has too, so far electing to let the Rigsbys go it alone.

Well, best of luck, evidence, and argument to you, Anthony DeWitt, because I sure want to see State Farm get what it’s got coming — provided that can be honestly, legitimately, ethically pulled off. As I think it can.