Judge Seeks to Streamline Remaining MS Katrina Homeowners Cases

From Insurance Journal:

U.S. District Judge L.T. Senter, who is hearing virtually all the Katrina lawsuits in Mississippi [including the Nationwide case recently decided], now has his sights set on finding a way to quickly and fairly resolve hundreds of similar cases.

On Monday, Senter sent a letter soliciting advice from the roughly 180 attorneys involved in these cases. He asked them if they would support “some form of representative trial,” where cases would be tried among groups of plaintiffs instead of individually.

That same day, however, Senter refused to allow a group of homeowners to join in a single lawsuit against State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. The judge said a class-action lawsuit isn’t appropriate because the nature and extent of the damage to each plaintiff’s home varies widely from case to case.

Now that the basics of the law have been hashed out in the first case, one would hope that the remaining cases can be churned through fairly quickly, perhaps even being resolved through arbitration or mediation. It sounds like the judge would like to get similar groups of cases bundled up to facilitate the process.

However, the IJ article points out that insurers do have a financial interest in dragging out the proceedings as long as possible. The ability to use the float on loss reserves, and the potential for savings by wearing down plaintiffs by the mere passage of time cannot be ignored… even though they suck from the claimant’s perspective (writing from personal experience, as someone who has a 4.5 year old auto injury claim outstanding….).