Insurance Coverage Blog

A few weeks ago, it was Bye Bye Trailer Lawyer Pie. But the Trailer Lawyers, bless 'em, are not willing to haul their trailer off quietly into the sunset.    

The Trailer Lawyers have now filed an eight-page rant against State "Snake" Farm and, strangely enough, Judge L.T. Senter Jr., who disqualified them.  The rant is entitled Motion for Reconsideration, and it is based on such new and dynamic allegations and conclusions as  these:

• State Farm should be known as "Snake Farm" for its treacherousness, and its lawyers must themselves be disqualified because they knew of the Rigsby sisters' sham consultant arrangement.
• Reporter Anita Lee of the Sun Herald wrote a story in 2006 about the sisters' consultant arrangement with Dickie Scruggs and so she also must be disqualified.    
• Judge Senter imposed higher levels of scrutiny on the Trailer Lawyers than he had in some other instances, and this is very unfair, so he must be disqualified.
• Everybody who has been talking about the Trailer Lawyers has their facts all wrong and so everybody must be disqualified.
• The Trailer Lawyers should be un-disqualified because they are without blame, and because they merely entered the trailer to watch Dr. Phil, have a few brews and eat some Doritos.  Dr. Phil, however, must be disqualified.
• The word "trailer" must be disqualified and is not to be used, particularly in connection with the Trailer Lawyers.

I paraphrase and exaggerate for effect, of course, but that's the general tone, and remarkably, some of these exaggerated points are really what the Trailer Lawyers wrote.  If your intent was actually to get a federal judge to reconsider his ruling, there probably are better ways to do it than to call him out in an extended diatribe. 

Incidentally, this is as good an excuse as we may get for some time to reprise the Trailer Lawyer anthem: Bye Bye Trailer Lawyer Pie, the lyrics of which are available at this earlier post. 

Just read your last two excellent blogs. Gotta love the Trailer Lawyer Pie song.
Claimsguy asked some good questions in the last post following your June 2 blog. They should be answered in the way only you can do so. Thanks.

Next: A Twisted Sisters' "Can we take it all back" motion.

Sorry, David, but the facts stated in the motion to reconsider are true. The payments to the Rigsbys were public knowledge. Only after Judge Senter's later ruling did we hear the outcry against the payments. Some that post here said there was no outcry because Scruggs was riding a pr wave. That does not excuse, in my mind, tolerating a breach of ethical conduct. Jim Hood tolerated it, State Farm and its legal team tolerated it, Mike Moore assisted in it and so on and so on. I think the problem I am having is that all the attorneys that are being disqualified felt that they had the court's stamp of approval on the payments. Plenty of lawyers could have raised a red flag.

If any lawyer "felt" he or she the court's stamp of approval on the Twisted Sisters' payola scam, don't you know that in the blizzard of pleadings in this case they would have said so -- at least in a footnote -- for cover? The Trailer Lawyers love scripture, but they appear to have forgotten Armageddon I,Verse 5: "Trifle not with a federal judge."

They are saying so now in the motion to reconsider. Could Judge Senter is his first ruling not have said something to indicate the payments were unethical?

And yeah, why didn't Senter disqualify State Farm lawyers for not only just knowing and not doing anything but also for knowing and not doing anything while it benefitted them to not do anything while they were settling lawsuits. The exhibit in their motion for reconsideration has 18 pages of names single-space with whom they settled while they knew of Scrugg's unethical conduct.

So if I dip into my clients' trust fund to take a trip to the Bahamas, but do an interview with the local TV station announcing that I'm doing so, I can't be disbarred because my "borrowing" was public knowledge? Now it's State Farm's responsibility to police the entire plaintiffs' bar in Mississippi because MS lawyers won't do it themselves? Come on. These attorneys behaved in a sleezy and unethical manner. It's not ok by any normal standards. The tragedy of Katrina doesn't create a waiver of all legal and ethical standards.

I must ask again, underdog, why you did not raise a question about the payments earlier. I just cannot get it that no one questioned the payments after the 20/20 telecast. Why did the Miss. Bar not question the payments? If it was unethical after Nov. or Dec. 2007, it was unethical in 2006. We, the public, had to think it was ok if all our public officials were going along with it - looking the other way.

Interested,
First of all, are you're asking why I personally didn't question the payments? So any lawyer in any state who thinks something is stinky should have run to Mississippi crying foul? I don't know why it was raised so late. Maybe because State Farm wanted to depose the sisters and find out whether they were actually working for Scruggs in order to present evidence to the court that the payments were a sham. I don't recall the 20/20 piece mentioning that the sisters were being paid $150,000 each per year for doing next to nothing. Unlike Dickie, State Farm doesn't appear to be willing to file motions based on bluster and bluff. They actually had to do some research to prove their suspicions and get some solid evidence. Back to the original premise, it doesn't matter who knew what and when. The trailer lawyers committed some serious ethical breaches and there is no excuse for that.

The 20/20 piece made no mention of the payments. I watched it in its entirety.

The "consulting" agreement was not considered a "sham" until Senter read the Rigsby depositions and determined they were being paid $150,000 a year to sit at home with Momma and play with the dog.

Yes, the dog, Payton, is very important, has a company named after him, probably gets compensated lavishly with stock, bonuses and kibble.

David, when did you know about the payments? Under Senter's ruling, you should have done something!

I have this vision of little Payton, dressed in pinstripes in the dog pound. Poor pooch, guilt by association.

Have you been reading? Who do you think has been writing about this for two years?

Here's a question:

Why did Belle's hero, AG Hood, never do a thing about the payments when he found out? After all, he must have known around the same time everyone else did. He is the state's chief legal enforcement officer and he did nothing.

XERAC - By now, you know better than to impugn the integrity of General Hood in Belle's presence! She has already gone over the deep end...you are gonna drive her further into the abyss.

Thank you XERAC for finally getting my point that Hood, Moore, Lott , Taylor should have spoken up and said the payments were not ethical. Someone posted that people did not know the amount of work in relation to the amount of money until after the depositions from the Rigsbys. The 20/20 piece made it clear that the documents were stolen. I think we were lulled into a sense of it being ok because of the tobacco whistleblowers. How can lawyers be disqualified for following a precedent?

Interested, your point is very good. However, it was still a wrongful action and because it was Big Tobacco everyone looked the other way. Much like here in California with DUI's.

Before it stayed on your record only 7 years but a few years ago a law was passed that retroactively made some stay on 10 years. While this flies in the face of increasing punishments after the fact no challenge was mounted because who wants to defend drunk drivers or give the appearance of doing such. So it was with Big Tobacco.

So when State Farm decided to actually cite the law and also brought up the payments, albeit a bit late in the game, people were aghast. However, wrong is wrong.

"Why did Belle's hero, AG Hood, never do a thing about the payments when he found out?"

Because it would've been like telling on *family* ....

from what I can glean from Senter's initial ruling on the Risby payments was he was giving the lawyers the benefit of the doubt that they truly were consulting and probably at this point was more suspect of State Farm due to public opinion and that they were tardy in his mind then in raising it. Most judge don't suspect corrupt unethical behavior and assume it's outrageous opponent rhetoric absent obvious indications of corruption like a guilty plea.

I think once the Lackey stuff went down with public details of SHAM PAYMENTS to bride, Judge Senter took a closer look at this Risby arrangement when the motion came in - Lord knows he had a reason to - and determined that the Risby arrangement to be much like Scruggs' other sham deals (he looking at you Ed Peters!)

Basically, I think Judge Senter is admitting he was probably too dismissive of legitimate issues raised - even though he had no reason to suspect corruption and fraud at the time.

Chip N Todd are delusional. Like a toddler blaming their sibling, Chip N Todd are yelling and screaming while they try to blame everything on their sister.

Famous last words

Scruggs called attempts to have him DQd as New York lawyering, implying that such tactics will not play in Mississippi. End result is that Sruggs is out.

SKG called attempts to DQ them as harassment. End result is SKG was DQd.

KLG called for sanctions against their opponent, before, you guessed it, being DQd.

Chip N Todd called their opponent’s motion to DQ them as desperate, and then they were, hmmmm, DQd. Who is desperate fellas?

Yet, the latest emotional dribble by Chip N Todd tops them all. They and Hood’s mouthpiece here, Belle, content that Chip N Todd are misunderstood and that SF must be to blame and they should be DQd.

These arguments are irrational and laughable. Read the judge’s motion to DQ, it reads well and gives step by step reasoning for why Chip N Todd can no longer step foot in a courtroom for the Qui Tam case.

Chip N Todd, show some honor and professionalism, and walk away before embarrassing yourselves further. Your backroom trailer games are over.

Game over guys.

How ironic?

Excellent post. "Snake Farm"....as a retired agent I'm not sure how I've never heard this before but it's going into my vocab immediately. Perfect.