A lawyer accused of trying to bribe a judge also paid two associates $500,000 to convince Attorney General Jim Hood not to file criminal charges against an insurance company over its handling of Hurricane Katrina claims, according to an FBI report in court records.This is a complicated case, but I guess what strikes me about it is that even if Mississippi Attorney-General Hood is telling the truth--that he did not bend to either a bribe or a threat--it doesn't say much for his reputation that someone found it plausible that paying $500,000 to a third party to either influence or bribe Hood was a reasonable business investment.
Plaintiffs lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, who sued State Farm Fire and Casualty Cos. soon after the 2005 storm, was afraid the company "was not going to settle the civil cases" if the attorney general's office filed criminal charges, according to an FBI report filed Monday in the bribery case.
At the time, Attorney General Jim Hood was pursuing a criminal investigation against State Farm over what he claimed was the company's fraudulent practices in denying homeowners' insurance claims.
Scruggs agreed to pay New Albany attorney Timothy Balducci and former State Auditor Steve Patterson "if they could get Hood to relent on indicting" State Farm, according to a report written by FBI Agent William Delaney on Nov. 2, 2007.
Before we go to single payer health insurance, I think we should see how single payer legal insurance works! Just think: you would never have to hire an attorney, or give him 1/3 of the eventual settlement, or have to hire an attorney to represent you in a criminal case. All attorneys, civil or criminal, would work for the government, for a flat salary. It might be a very nice salary--say, $100,000 a year--but think of all the really sleazy lawsuits that ambulance chasers file today in the hopes of getting 1/3 of $10,000,000. No lawyer would file a suit like that, because it wouldn't affect his income in the least. O.J. wouldn't have any more of a Dream Team than any other defendant being tried for murder.
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