State Farm's two motions: remove Scruggs-affiliated attorneys, compel Rigsbys' documents (01/04/08)

State Farm has asked a federal judge a second time to disqualify lawyers from the Katrina Litigation Group (formerly members of the Scruggs Katrina Group) from representing plaintiffs in McIntosh v. State Farm. A similar motion was filed by the company in December in the Glenda Shows v. State Farm case. As in the previous one, State Farm’s memorandum to the court says the lawyers have engaged in a pattern of unethical and in some instances, illegal, tactics in Katrina-related litigation. More information can be found in this Associated Press article.

State Farm also filed a memorandum in support of its motion to compel Cori and Karrie Rigsby (self-proclaimed “whistleblowers” employed by Richard “Dickie” Scruggs) to produce documents they admitted to having, yet failed to produce following a court order. This memorandum comes after State Farm’s December motion to compel the Rigsbys to answer questions their lawyers instructed them not to answer based on a claim of attorney-client privilege. In that memorandum, the company asserted that because third parties – namely the sisters’ mother and her husband – were present during several of the sisters’ meetings with their lawyers, privilege has been waived.