More Jim Hood on BP Payments

BP settlement news:

The administrator of BP Plc's (BP.L) $20-billion fund for victims of the worst U.S. offshore oil spill on Wednesday encouraged claimants to file early for final settlements to get the most generous terms.

"I am determined to be more generous than the courts would be..." said Kenneth Feinberg of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility on a conference call as the program stopped taking emergency claims and started work on final settlements.

He warned that Gulf Coast people and businesses who decline to settle and refuse to give BP and its contractors a release from future risk of lawsuits might end up getting less money.

"There is no guarantee that, in the future, a lump sum final payment will be as generous as it will be currently," Feinberg said.

"Until we finish our negotiations with Mr. Feinberg, I advise claimants against signing a release or accepting a final payment without first sharing those payments and paying fees to consulting an attorney," Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said in a statement.

Jim Hood on BP Oil Payments

Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, criticized Feinberg’s draft of protocols for final payments requiring lawyers to forego their legal fees victims to waive their legal rights to sue BP and other companies tied to the spill.

School Attorney says pink cleats kid "quit"

There is always two sides to every story but so far we've only heard one side. Here are the first comments by the attorney for the school in the silly pink cleats lawsuit.

The attorney for Mendenhall High School football player Coy Sheppard claims the school did not honor its agreement to let him back on the football team last Friday. But, the attorney for the Simpson County School Board says the coach told the high school senior he was back on the team, but he would not be playing in the playoff game. We’re told the coach allowed Sheppard to stand on the sidelines, but he was not in full uniform. "My understanding is that he quit he walked away. He said well I’m done with you and everything and he walks away and that’s it. At no time was he ever forced off the team,” recalls Daniel Jones, Simpson County’s attorney.

The Silliness Continues

The implied threat to the Coach is you better play this guy at Friday's game or else the lawsuit will happen. As we have warned, we are now litigating the decisions coaches make in football. Parents, forget screaming at the coach, just hire a lawyer instead.

Coy Sheppard says he just wants to kick the ball Friday and help his Mendenhall High School football team win.

And he's hoping his coach doesn't reverse field and keep him from dressing out.

Sheppard is practicing with the team this week in preparation for Friday's game against the St. Stanislaus Rockachaws in the third round of the state playoffs. The winner advances to the state semifinals.

The Sheppards sued the school district earlier this month to protest his dismissal from the team. According to the lawsuit, Mendenhall coach Chris Peterson dismissed Sheppard after he wore pink cleats to the Oct. 8 football game and Oct. 11 practice.

Peterson told Sheppard he could not dress out for Friday's game because he had missed too many practices, Diaz said.

Quarterback Arlandas Johnson, who has also been kicking in Sheppard's absence, was injured last week, and it's unclear whether he will be able to play Friday.

Joanne Sheppard said her son just wants to be able to play before his senior year season ends.

Diaz said the original lawsuit had not been dismissed because they were waiting to see whether Coy Sheppard would be "fully reinstated" as the agreement said.

Coaching Through Litigation - or - the other shoe drops

It appears the Mendenhall football coach did not play the kid with the pink cleats after he was reinstated to the football team and dropped his lawsuit. Some people yell at a coach from the bleachers when they don't like what he does. Not anymore. Now its time to sue.

The kid's attorney, Oliver Diaz, said

"So not only is this coach making bad decisions, he is also costing the taxpayers of Simpson County a good amount in legal damages."

Two items to note. First, what is costing the taxpayers of Simpson County is the lawsuit will now include money for the kid and money for his attorney. Second, the team won suggesting the Coach may just not have needed the kid.

In addition to the initial request for punitive damages paid to the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, Diaz said, he will be requesting punitive damages for Sheppard, plus attorney’s fees.

Mendenhall defeated Purvis 27-21 in the Class 4A playoffs.

If anyone is costing the taxpayers money, it is the lawyer. If you measure coaching decisions by a win or loss, then the coach did not make a bad decision.

Let's hope for the sake of football that we don't soon add on-field lawyers for players to consult when they disagree with their coaches.

A "silly" lawsuit dropped

It seems the silly lawsuit over a football player's pink shoes has come to an end.

Sheppard, who was kicked off the Mendenhall High School football team last month after wearing the brightly colored shoes for a game and practice, was reinstated Thursday during a meeting with school officials.

The 17-year-old kicker filed a lawsuit against the school district last week to protest his Oct. 11 dismissal from the team. The suit has been dropped as part of Thursday's agreement, his attorney, Oliver Diaz, said.

Sheppard said his goal was to raise awareness about breast cancer.

"As long as this raised awareness, then it's done some good," he said. "I'm just glad to be back on the team."

Attorneys for Sheppard and the district said coach Chris Peterson hugged Sheppard and welcomed him back to the team after the agreement was reached.

"He coaches the team real good," Sheppard said. "I'm glad to be back with him, playing for him."

At last, the Republic is safe once again.

A "silly" lawsuit

A kid wears pink cleats to football practice. His coach tells him not to wear them. The kid ignores the coach and wears them again. The coach says if you won't follow instructions, you're off the team. The kid sues. Former Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz is his attorney.

Because students in the Simpson County School District earn academic credit for participating in sports, Diaz said the dismissal has put Sheppard's future at the school in question. "His graduation may be in jeopardy for something as silly as not being allowed to wear pink cleats," he said.

How silly for the kid to put his own graduation in jeopardy by not listening to his coach at practice. He must value his pink cleats more than football, even more than his education. Good for him. One day he can point to those pink cleats on the wall and tell his grandchildren that pink cleats are worth fighting for, even sacrificing your education for.

Another word for "silly" is of course "frivolous."

But wait. It appears pink cleats are not worth fighting for.

Diaz said Coy Sheppard has apologized and promised to leave the pink shoes at home, but so far school officials have not budged.

"All Coy wants to do is play football," JoAnne Sheppard said "If they told him he could play football this weekend, he would go play."

Kid doesn't listen to his coach. Kid gets kicked off the team. Kid still wants to play. Kid now says he will listen to his coach. I bet he will listen to his coach now and more than that the other team members will listen to their coach. That is important to a team.

Should the coach let the kid who learned his lesson to get back on the team? That's up to the coach, but while the kid still wants to play football, it isn't clear he learned his lesson.

Sheppard's suit, filed last week in Simpson County Chancery Court, asks the court to reinstate Sheppard to the football team and clear his disciplinary record. The suit also asks for any monetary damages to be awarded to the American Cancer Society.

So, the kid wants the judge to run football, not his coach. The kid wants a judge to erase the fact that he ignored his coach's instructions. And the kid wants to take money from his school and give it to a charity he supports. It appears the kid doesn't just want to play football, he wants to play football on his own terms, which is what started this whole mess to begin with.

We agree with his attorney. This is silly.

Fraudulent asbestos lawyer a Hood fundraising host

This week a federal jury determined William Guy and attorney Thomas Brock should pay Illinois Central Railroad Co. $420,000 in actual and punitive damages for their role in a fraudulent asbestos lawsuit. The "Honorable" William Guy was one of the hosts of this fundraiser for Jim Hood last year.The Associated Press reports, "Guy is a well-known attorney who served two terms as a state representative in the late 1960s and 1970s before moving to the Senate for one term. He ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor as a Democrat in 1995." He also ran unsuccessfully against Senator Bob Dearing in 2007 in the Democratic Primary (64.5% to 35.5%). He has been a donor for many years to Democratic committees, and besides Hood, candidates like John Edwards for President and Congressman Bennie Thompson.

Brock also has contributed more than $3500 to Hood (here, here, here) as well as contributions to Supreme Court Candidate Billy Joe Landrum, Supreme Court Justice James Graves, Supreme Court Candidate Frank Vollor, and others.

“Illinois Central is pleased that a Mississippi federal jury held these plaintiffs’ lawyers liable for fraud in asbestos claims against us,” said Karen Phillips, Vice President of Public and Government Affairs for Illinois Central. Illinois Central attorney Danny Mulholland of Jackson said he's obligated to report the conduct of Guy and Brock to the Mississippi Bar.

"This case is significant because it is the first time I am aware of that a jury has found that asbestos plaintiffs' lawyers committed fraud," said Mark Behrens, a Washington, D.C., attorney with Shook, Hardy & Bacon.

Add Guy and Brock to the list of shady lawyers supporting and connected to Jim Hood. At least this is just a civil verdict, and they aren't in federal prison like Hood's biggest campaign contributors.

Jackson Municipal Judge urges residents to file contingency fee lawsuits

Dickie Scruggs once had this to say about "magic jurisdictions" where judges favored lawsuits and defendants didn't have much of a chance.

[W]hat I call the “magic jurisdiction,”...[is] where the judiciary is elected with verdict money. The trial lawyers have established relationships with the judges that are elected; they’re State Court judges; they’re popul[ists]. They’ve got large populations of voters who are in on the deal, they’re getting their [piece] in many cases. And so, it’s a political force in their jurisdiction, and it’s almost impossible to get a fair trial if you’re a defendant in some of these places. The plaintiff lawyer walks in there and writes the number on the blackboard, and the first juror meets the last one coming out the door with that amount of money. . . . The cases are not won in the courtroom. They’re won on the back roads long before the case goes to trial. Any lawyer fresh out of law school can walk in there and win the case, so it doesn’t matter what the evidence or the law is.

Certainly a municipal judge is different from what he was speaking about, but lest you think Mississippi's judiciary has swung away from favoring trial lawyers comes this story from Saturday's Clarion Ledger where a judge is actually advocating people to file lawsuits, to come together to file them as a class action, and to not worry about the cost because lawyers will take the case on a contingency fee, or a portion of the win.

Municipal Court Judge Ali ShamsiDeen, who spoke at the meeting, had some unconventional advice - sue.

ShamsiDeen said property owners can file simple negligence or nuisance lawsuits against property owners if they can show damages, such as decreases in property values attributable to the blighted property.

Damages in such lawsuits can cover more than monetary losses, including mental anguish or loss of the use and enjoyment of property "because of all these boarded up houses and the dope traffic," he said.

"People are going to have to become more involved in their communities," ShamsiDeen said. "One way is through civil suits."

ShamsiDeen said using tort law to attack blight is "new territory," but it is catching on as cities try to counteract the damaging effects of large numbers of vacant properties.

"The person or persons you are going after don't have to be breaking the law," he said. "Your claim is that (the property owner's) negligence has impacted your home negatively. You aren't looking for a crime. You are looking for cause and effect."

Such litigation can take months or even years to complete, but ShamsiDeen said it costs $155 to file suit and lawyers often take such cases on a contingency basis if a defendant with deep enough pockets can be found.

"One way to attack the problem is as a class action," he said. "The whole neighborhood can sue."

Some attorneys still frown on lawyers going out to chase ambulances for cases, here is an example of a judge doing it for them.

Everyone Likes Marshall

I'm sure those who approve of Jim Hood's actions and those who do not all like today's Marshall Ramsey cartoon.

Billion Dollar Set Backs for Jim Hood

Last week was a bad one for Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. First, Hood lost before a three judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals over a billion dollar lawsuit accusing Memphis of stealing Mississippi's water.

Apparently Hood is looking to take this to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"Either way, Mississippi will get its day in court and Memphis will have to answer and account for its theft of Mississippi's water," Don Barrett, lead counsel for the state, said in a text message Friday afternoon.

Mississippi Atty. Gen. Jim Hood, who filed the suit, said the ruling addresses only the proper court for the case, not its merits.

"We look forward to stopping the flow of our pure water to the Memphis pumps and recouping restitution for the loss of Mississippi resources," he said in a statement.

Oh yeah, lead attorney Don Barrett is a long time trial lawyer handling asbestos, tobacco, firestone tires, ford gas caps, vioxx - but very notably head of the Katrina Litigation Group (along with the Scruggs Firm and others). I tell you what, a contingency fee on a billion dollars is a nice deal if you can get it. It must be nice to be like Hood's family.

This case is also interesting because Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley has said he wants to get involved in it, too.

Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley said he'll push for the PSC to get involved in water rights litigation between Mississippi and Memphis.

Presley told the DeSoto County Board of Supervisors Tuesday the regulatory agency needs to represent water customers in a lawsuit alleging that Memphis is taking Mississippi's water.

"I think the PSC has to have a role in that case," Presley said. "It's on the minds of everybody in DeSoto County to make sure we've got that water supply here."

Presley said the previous PSC didn't act on the water rights lawsuit in time to be a party to it. He said the case is scheduled to be heard in U.S. District Court in Oxford in February.

Whatever the outcome, he anticipates the case will be appealed, and the PSC will get an opportunity to file a friend of the court brief.

The second big lost came to Hood's challenge of Mississippi Power's $2 billion Kemper Coal Plant, unanamously rejected by the three members of the Mississippi Public Service Commission. Hood, the Sierra Club, and two independent power producers (Entegra Power Group and Magnolia Energy) all had filed challenges to stop this new facility and the PSC rejected them all. It was a good win for Mississippi Power.

The Clarion Ledger and the Neshoba Democrat both editorialized this as a victory for more energy and more jobs.

Judge Notes "Pay to Play" in a Hood Case

NMissCommentor.com and Y'allPolitics both bring us this sad recognition that the Court recognizes "pay to play" scernarios between plaintiff firms and attorneys general, in a case which Jim Hood is participating along with his special counsels, who happened to contribute more than $30,000 to his campaign.

From a footnote in the US District Court Judge Jed Rakoff's opinion:

The Court in not unaware of disturbing allegations that state entities not unlike MissPERS [the Mississippi state retirement system], and law firms not unlike Bernstein Litowitz, have engaged in “pay-for-play” arrangements, by which such an entity will not even consider hiring such a law firm unless the law firm has contributed to the campaign fund of the relevant state elected official, such as the attorney general. See, e.g. John C. Coffee, Jr., ‘Pay-to-Play’ Reform: What, How, and Why, New York Law Journal, May 21, 2009, p. 5. But no such allegations are presently before the Court in this case.

Check NMC and Y'all for the full story.

"Trial Lawers Wrong" - Tort Reform Works

The Greenwood Commonwealth had this to say in a recent editorial:

A half-dozen years ago, doctors were up in arms, leaving the state, retiring early or scaling back their practices because of the onslaught they were facing from trial lawyers. The only thing standing between them and insolvency was malpractice insurance, and its cost had soared -- that’s if they could find an insurer.

Thanks to a couple of rounds of tort reform, the situation appears to be largely resolved.

Last week, the state’s largest provider of malpractice insurance announced it was cutting its rates by another 20 percent. It was the fourth consecutive annual rate reduction by Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi. Cumulatively, the premiums that health providers are paying for malpractice insurance are almost 60 percent less than they were shelling out during the peak of the crisis.

It should be remembered that when lawmakers were battling over putting sensible limits on civil damage awards and curbing venue shopping, the opponents -- mostly friends of the trial bar -- scoffed at the notion that the changes would impact insurance rates. They claimed that the rise in malpractice insurance premiums was a result of poor investment returns, not the legal climate.

The stock market has tanked in the past year, and yet malpractice premiums are falling significantly anyway. It goes to further show that the reformers were right, and the trial lawyers wrong.

The editorial follows a press release from Governor Haley Barbour who had announced that Mississippi's largest provider of medical malpractice insurance had lowered it rates, once again, following the trend since the passage of comprehensive tort reform.

Ridgeland-based Medical Assurance Company of Mississippi (MACM) reduced its medical liability insurance rates across the board by 20 percent for 2009. This is the fourth consecutive annual rate reduction and returns the premiums that Mississippi physicians pay for malpractice insurance to rates comparable to those paid in 2002.

In addition to a reduction in rates, tort reform has opened the door for better accessibility to healthcare through an increase in the number of physicians insured by MACM.

“MACM saw a five percent increase in the number of physicians insured by the company between the end of 2002 and the end of 2008,” Governor Barbour said. “These additional physicians are now living and practicing in Mississippi and helping provide the health care that is so essential to a better quality of life for all Mississippians."

Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney praised the rate reduction.

“Mississippi physicians are now paying 42.2 percent less in premium for their professional liability insurance than they did in 2004, after tort reform was enacted through special sessions of the Mississippi Legislature,” Commissioner Chaney said.

“Additional, and much stronger, tort reform was passed during a special session in the spring of 2004. As a result of this combined legislation, Mississippi healthcare has benefited. As an example, if a physician paid $10,000 in premium in 2004, that same physician would pay just $5,780 today as a result of fours years of rate reductions by MACM. In addition, this physician would have received refunds of premium totaling almost $7,000 during this same time period.”

When tort reform was first considered, MACM promised that if the legislation were passed, the company would respond by passing monetary savings to its customers. Through rate reductions and premium refunds for the past four years, MACM has honored this commitment.

I got this nifty chart from a comment over at Mississippi Perspective.

2002 –Musgrove Tort Legislation Passed
2003 – 54% premium increase in premiums
2004 – 19.4% premium increase in premiums
2004 – (Sept) Barbour Tort Legislation Passed
2005 – No change in premium (In December, 15% of premium paid was refunded)
2006 – 5% premium decrease
2007 – 10% premium decrease
2008 – 15.5% premium decrease
2009 – 20.0% premium decrease

Mississippi's Dangerous Liason: Jim Hood

The American Tort Reform Association's report "Judicial Hellholes 2008 / 2009" includes an appendix, "Dangerous Liaisons: Some State Attorneys General Offer Contingency Fee Contracts to Politically Supportive Outside Counsel."

The report has choice words about our former Attorney General Mike Moore, but my favorite bits discuss Jim Hood and "his propensity for hiring future felons to perform legal work on behalf of Mississippi citizens".

As reiterated throughout, this report primarily focuses on judicial decision making and court practices that unfairly tip the scales of justice against civil defendants. But the actions of a handful of state attorneys general also contribute to growing concerns in the business community about the ability of defendants to receive fair trials. This happens when what are essentially private lawsuits are filed, often in a plaintiff-biased local court, with the backing of the state government and a strong incentive to obtain the highest monetary award possible. It’s a system of legal kickbacks known as “pay to play,” wherein lawyers who contribute to the campaigns of the state’s highest ranking attorney can then get a contract for a piece of the action and, in some cases, develop the action themselves and get a go-ahead to pursue it in the state’s name.

The practice began in May 1994 in the Chancery Court in Jackson, Mississippi, when then-Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore filed a revolutionary lawsuit that would change the relationship between the offices of attorneys general and the plaintiffs’ bar in virtually every state. The lawsuit was brought against the manufacturers and other entities comprising the tobacco industry and sought to recover monies allegedly spent by the state of Mississippi providing health care to residents injured by tobacco use.

But that’s not what was unique about this lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in Chancery Court. According to the state of Mississippi’s Web site, “Chancery Courts have jurisdiction over disputes in matters involving equity; domestic matters including adoptions, custody disputes and divorces; guardianships; sanity hearings; wills; and challenges to constitutionality of state laws. Land records are filed in Chancery Court.” Chancery courts are not typically the courts where lawsuits potentially worth several hundred million dollars are filed.

The State of Mississippi also pioneered an important new litigation model for legal representation with this lawsuit; Moore’s office hired outside counsel to represent the state, including his close friend and campaign contributor, Richard “Dickie” Scruggs (who has since been disbarred and is serving a federal prison sentence for an unrelated conspiracy to bribe a Mississippi judge). Scruggs and others agreed to take the case on a contingency fee basis. In the event that Mississippi settled or won its case, Scruggs would take a percentage. If the state got nothing, he would get nothing.

Today, the history of that litigation, parallel actions filed in other states, the ensuing Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) and additional state settlements is well known. Less well-known is the application of the model that it pioneered; a model that has created a corrupt and corrosive cronyism between some state attorneys general and outside counsel.

Hired on a contingency fee basis, outside counsel have won many billions of dollars in fees for their litigation work against a variety of industries. They also have been generous supporters of their chief clients’ reelection campaigns; thereby ensuring that the model provides financial benefits to both the elected official doing the hiring and the personal injury lawyers performing the work.

Today several attorneys general are involved in relationships with outside counsel in high-profile litigation that exemplifies the need for comprehensive reform. Here are four examples.

MISSISSIPPI

If former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore pioneered the model wherein personal injury lawyers are hired by the AG and, in turn, reward his or her campaign with cash, then credit goes to his successor Jim Hood for perfecting it.

In a five-year span Hood’s office retained 27 law firms to represent Mississippi in 20 separate lawsuits. Partners in the firms selected by Hood contributed $534,900 to his reelection campaigns over a two-cycle period. The list of Hood contributors included Moore’s old friend Richard “Dickie” Scruggs to the tune of $30,000, and fellow plaintiffs’ counsel Joey Langston, who, like his former associate Scruggs, has also recently pled guilty of conspiring to bribe a judge. Langston’s firm gave Hood $130,000. And that investment in Hood’s campaign seems to have paid off. In 2005 as part of the state’s $100 million settlement with MCI/WorldCom, Langston’s firm split $14 million in fees.

Considering his propensity for hiring future felons to perform legal work on behalf of Mississippi citizens, Jim Hood understandably remains a steadfast opponent of laws that would provide for competitive bidding and public scrutiny of the contracts into which his office enters.

Mississippi's Attorney General can hand pick his largest campaign contributors to receive secret, no-bid, multi-million dollar contracts. Where is the good government, Common Cause, media elite outrage? I suppose as it is a Democrat trial lawyer, no one cares.

Litigation Addiction

It is clear that plaintiff attorneys around the country are pumping in money to change the Mississippi Supreme Court. They are funding Jim Kitchens in hopes to defeat Chief Justice Jim Smith.

But litigation addicts in Mississippi are helping, too. Just looking at the big names on his most recent report. David Baria, former Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association president gave $1000. Shane Langston sent him $1200. The Mike Moore Firm gave $1000. Ed Williamson of Philadelphia and Isaac Byrd of Jackson each gave $1000.

But of course trial lawyers will fund his campaign. The funny part is the litigation addiction mindset. Ole Kitch's campaign is upset at people exercising their free speech. An organization apparently took photographs off of Jim Smith's web site and used them. Kitch's campaign said, "Surely Mr. Smith, a judge, knows that he could file suit against those groups for stealing or copyright infringement."

Like an addict facing his drug of choice he can't believe someone else would turn down the opportunity. Look! You can sue! Why don't you sue? For the love of man, don't you see you can sue!

I'm sure Jim Smith knows anyone can sue anyone for just about anything. But his first reaction is different from Kitchens. But then, that is what Kitchens does for a living.