Merlin Law Blog

Folks, this Cowboy has been letting the totality of this mess sink in and then I read this comment on David Rossmiller's blog that appears to sum things up well:

"For those scoring at home:
1.Maria Brown blew the whistle and sued Nutt & McAlister of SKG, alleging sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and mentions N&Ms failure to turn over records to Judge Acker.
2. Scruggs and Bartimus, Frickleton, Robertson & Groney have filed suit against State Farm, Nationwide, Allstate, USAA, and several engineering firms for overbilling the federal government for Hurricane Katrina damage.
3. Jones, Funderburg have sued Dickie Scruggs, Don Barrett, Scruggs law firm, Barrett law office, Nutt & McAlister, and Lovelace law firm over payment of disputed funds. Jones and Funderburg have asked to court to take control of SKG assets.
4. United States of America v. Dickie Scruggs, Zach Scruggs, Sidney Backstrom, Tim Balducci, and Steve Patterson for attempting to bribe Judge Henry Lackey.
5. Balducci blew the whistle against Scruggs & Co, and pleads guilty to bribing Judge Lackey.
6. Jim Hood, AG, sued State Farm for breach of the settlement agreement.
7. State Farm sued Jim Hood, AG for breach of the settlement agreement.
8. State Farm sued to disqualify Dickie Scruggs from Katrina cases.
9. E.A. Renfroe & Co sues whistleblowers Cori and Kerri Rigsby for violating the Alabama Trade Secrets Act and breaching confidentiality agreements.
10. Judge Acker appoints special prosecutors to prosecute Dickie Scruggs with criminal contempt related to the E.A. Renfroe suit against the Rigsby sisters."

Except this post really sums up nothing about the real insurance issues or insurance law. Notice folks the implied threats against the Rigsby sisters, who by all accounts have had no involvement with the allegations against Scruggs. Most of what makes the so called insurance blogs these days is either old news, or half the story as Mr. Rossmiller himself pointed out in an rare moment of balanced commentary.

Well folks, here on the Mississippi Insurance Forum you'll get just insurance talk; straight talk in fact, the kind that even a Cowboy can understand without a bunch of frue-frilly legal double talk. That's probably why this Cowboy-farmer enjoys reading Mr. Chip Merlin's insurance law blog. While the talking heads sit in places like New York City and Portland Oregon ole Chip was over New Orleans way at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals listening to the actual arguments. He presents an analysis of the recent Broussard arguments that you won't find anywhere else and he makes it understandable. I highly recommend it.

In his reply to me there he summed up why you can't trust a carpetbagger with this issue. Like in most cases it's what these talking heads don't tell you that matters most. Remember folks, State Farm threatened the engineers with termination because they found 2 instances of wind rather than flood in over 90 reports. Whadda you think the "boxing glove" hands people would do to a lawyer that doesn't tote the company line?