Anita Lee reports (h/t duckweedpond):
Former policyholder clients of disgraced attorney Dickie Scruggs have settled their lawsuits against State Farm, including racketeering allegations that the insurance company conspired with vendors to shortchange customers.
Policyholder law firm Provost Umphrey indicated more than 225 cases — 90 percent of those the firm had against State Farm in Mississippi — have been settled, including the racketeering lawsuit with 38 plaintiffs. Terms of the settlements are confidential.
“A combination of factors came together to allow the successful resolution of these claims including, the compensation amount, the exhaustion of the clients with the legal pursuit of their claims, unfavorable legal rulings over the last year and half and a fresh perspective afforded by new counsel,” a typed statement from Provost Umphrey said. …
A passage later in the story, “The Shows case lay dormant for months before the settlement. The multiple plaintiffs asked last week that the racketeering claims be dropped,” suggests that this may have been the easiest money Provost Umphrey ever made. But I’ll wager that some local folks have entirely had it with lawyers.
Rossmiller disappeared. Bellesouth disappeared from all three Katrina blogs. They must be the same person!
Might Dickie be making an apology, not only to State Farm, but also to his former clients who always had contract claims but were delayed for YEARS while Dickie tried to ring the punitive damage bell? Wouldn’t they have a RICO claim against him for conspiring to bribe judges, act in his own interest rather than theirs, commit computer theft in a trailer, and concoct known-to-be-false punitive damage claims to their detriment? And, by the way, how’s that qui tam suit of the Rigsby Sisters marching along?
I don’t know how, but only now am I seeing that y’all’ve started a prospering comment thread here. CR, hmmmmmm. 3dS, what excellent questions.
Bar’s open, what’ll ye hev?
3d, in my case, the insurance company didn’t pay punitive damages. They just paid 2.25 x my damages. Somehow, that looks like punitives to me. No apology necessary.
More Cowbell, did you pay federal income tax on the amount over your compensatory recovery? That’s the determinant.