In the case that the Rigsby sisters stole the documents from SF, then turned them over to Scruggs, the MS AG and the USAG's office, there have been some developments as of late that are getting interesting.  As mentioned that SF has gotten all of the original attorneys tied in with the Scruggs Group thrown off of the cases, and also gotten the sisters barred from testifying on any case that SF or Renfroe are a party, and has gotten all the purloined documents from ever being used in a case unless they can be shown they were obtained through normal discovery channels.  Well SF isn't done yet, and it appears they have gone on the offensive bigtime and yesterday files hundreds pf pages of motiions for various things, part of which is to get the "whistleblower" suit thrown out, and to have a jury decide if the sisters themselves are guilty of conspiracy and fraud.  Tthey are also trying to get the attorneys who are working on that suit thrown off of the suit due to possible ethical violations in the original obtaining of these documents, accessing the SF confidential computer system from the infamous "trailer meeting", and also claim that the moment the sisters started getting the $150,000 a year 'consulting fee" from Scruggs they were barred from being involved in the case as a witness. (note in one of the depositions of a sister recently she testified that she may have worked about 5 hrs during the month of November for her "consulting fee" and couldn't really say what exactly was done as far as consulting to earn that fee).  SF basically is claiming that the documents were taken strictly for the personal gain and profiting of the sisters and Scruggs, and to date there has been no evidence put forth that SF did what the sisters accused them of in that suit.  There is even some testimony is a sister depo that alludes to the fact they had a listing of Scruggs clients prior to taking the documents from SF, and his clients files were some of the ones stolen.  Me thinks that that makes no sense if what they originally claim is true, they saw this fraud taking place by SF, their conscience got the better of them and they took only documents that proved that SF was committing fraud.  Here is a link to the latest newspaper article about the motions, and in the article are links to read the actual motions filed.  I've said it before and I will say it again, I'm glad I'm not in the Rigsby sister's shoes these days.  Wonder if Dickie is even talking to them anymore, or if he has left them hanging.

http://www.sunherald.com/278/story/476394.html

Here is a link to a pretty good story in Fortune magazine that recaps the Katrina/Scruggs/Bribery scandel/Rigsby Sisters/Attorney General Hood/ State Farm mess and is an excellent read.  It misses some key facts that makes reality even more damning for the Rigsby sisters/Scruggs/AG Hood, and I don't know if that is due to trying to consolidate the story, or not knowing the other facts, or trying to give it a slant one way or another.  no matter what, it is worth the read.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/04/09/news/newsmakers/parloff_scruggs.fortune/

Here is an article from the NU this morning that baffles my mind.  I seriously wonder if this attorney who is discussing this case is involved in any Katrina cases and has any idea of what is going on.  All I can say is I disagree 100% with almost all of what he says, to the issue that most commercial policies provide coverage for flood since the NFIP limits are low to the fact that the date the suit was filed triggers which penalty statute applied in cases of bad faith.  Maybe he needs to read up on the cases that have been decided in both the federal courts and now this one in the state court where they apply the statute based on when the bad faith took place, not when the suit was filed......  His reading and intrepretation of the ruling is different then any of the attorneys I know dealing with these cases, and that is way more then one

Flooded Businesses Will Profit From La. High Court Ruling

BY DANIEL HAYS
NU Online News Service, April 10, 4:29 p.m. EDT

For those of you that have followed it, Tis a sad day for Dickie Scruggs who was just sentenced to the maximum term of 5 years plus the maximum fine of $250,000  for his bribery of a judge in a case where one of his partners in the Scruggs Katrina group sued him over getting shafted out of legal fees from Katrina cases.  He, along with his son and law partner also solicited support letters from friends and family members to tell the judge what great pillars of society they are, and it appears at least one of these letters backfired on him.  One said it "would be a waste of taxpayer $$ to incarcerate him", so I heard that the judge may have deviated from the sentencing guidelines and tacked on additional $ to the 250K fine to pay for the cost of incarcerating him.

PS, if you have an interest in this stuff, keep your ear to the ground as if I were a gambling man I'd say that poor ole Dickie will have some additional indictments coming down on him soon in the Judge Delaughter bribery case.

Also Dickie is in deep dodo over in Alabama over the Renfroe vs Rigsby Sisters case over the stolen State Farm documents in that he now has 2 different federal judges ordering him to turn over documents/information and he has to submit to additional depositions.  Turns out that the Rigsby sisters who claimed they didn't have any of the documents when the 1st judge ordered they turn them over, may have actually had some on their computer. Later (like over a year) there was an additional order to turn over some stuff in a different case and they claimed they couldn't because their computer had crashed shortly before.  Turns out that a good puter person could still get this stiff out of the puter and there is a motion war going on as to whether these recovered items need to be produced, and last I saw both Scruggs and the Rigsby's are loosing that battle bigtime, and they havealready been hit with a $75,000 contempt of court order.  With Dickie going to be busy for the 5 years (at least), I just wonder how much longer it will be until he hangs the sisters out to dry, as he has so many times in the past with co defense counsel on his cases.

Thanks Steve, This may the largest fall of a very renowned plaintiff attorney that I can recall. The waves will travel all around the world.