Everybody, insiders in the Ms Ins. Comm. hiding years of corporate collusion, biased judges and law clerks with insidious political agendas and unethical ins. defense lawyers, all fueled by SF’s high octane propaganda machine, got in on the feeding frenzy. One obscure West Coast lawyer ala “journalist,” a neophyte attorney who wouldn’t know a hurricane loss if it bit his private parts off, re-invented himself and rising from obscurity, became an instantaneous media darling by blathering seductive phrases like “Scruggsnation.” Self-ordained insurance expert, he parlayed a campaign of corporate sponsored Scruggs bashing into a new career, and presto-chango, like the ancient theory of “spontaneous generation,” he’s suddenly a law scholar. No one even bothered to ask how many new insurance defense cases flowed into his relatively small defense firm while he relentlessly bashed Scruggs and Katrina policyholders to the cued beat of SF’s drum. Even the 5th Cir. at one point bought into the cacophony. Finally, Alabama US Attorney Alice Martin and a truly “Honorable” US Dist. Judge, Judge Roger Vinson of Penascola, turned a water hose on the pathologic frenzy. Now, years later, the 11th Cir. nails Judge William Acker’s door shut and removes him from the case. The madness is finally over . . . much, much, much too late and after massive collateral damage. Here’s a novel suggestion, why not apply the “honest services” doctine to judges, law clerks and whole court staffs? (Sen. Leahy has tried since 2006 to get a bill making honest services apply to members of Congress who deprive American citizens of honest service in the performance of their sworn duties). Postscript disclaimer: nothing said here is meant to excuse or exonerate Dick Scruggs from his obvious and admitted wrongs.

This is apples to oranges. In the Scruggs case, he was held in contempt for failing to follow a Court order. He was not an attorney nor a party in the case, so the order had no affect on him.

If, on the other hand, someone had sought a TRO against him, he’d most certainly be a party to the case. Whether an Alabama Court had personal jurisdiction would be an interesting question.

I said this on a prior post. the easiest remedy would have been for mcrae to ask the circuit court to issue a TRO against Chip’s attorneys compelling them to preserve the documents once they were turned over to them.

unless you think an attorney is going to violate a direct court order, this solves the problem of two courts ordering Mrs. Pickering’s former attorney from doing 2 different things.