Justice Department Weighs Taking Over Case Filed By Indicted Lawyer

[L. Coyote]

I'm not sure what to make of the Scruggs indictment news. It this another political hit job?
Scruggs has enemies, especially Big Tobacco. Now, add Big Insurance!

==================
Justice Department Weighs Taking Over Case Filed By Indicted Lawyer
07 Dec 2007 - by Michael Kunzelman - Associated Press Writer
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=5154945&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1


NEW ORLEANS -- Famed plaintiffs lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs has waited months for the U.S. Department of Justice to decide if it will intervene in one of his signature cases -- a "whistleblower" lawsuit that accuses insurers of overbilling the federal government for Hurricane Katrina damage.

While the Justice Department considered teaming up with Scruggs, federal prosecutors were secretly investigating the high-profile attorney for allegedly trying to bribe a state judge in Mississippi.

Last week, a grand jury in Oxford, Miss., indicted Scruggs and four others on charges they conspired to pay the judge $40,000 for a favorable ruling in a dispute over $26.5 million in legal fees from a mass settlement of Katrina suits.

The indictments announced last Thursday by U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee present an awkward question for the Justice Department's civil division: Should the federal government take over a case brought by a lawyer now under federal indictment?

[gateley]

1. This just feels wrong. nt

[L. Coyote]

2. The group of lawyers that won the big payola have been targeted before.