Seen Insurance Journal:
The U.S. Department of Justice is weighing whether to intervene in a lawsuit that accuses insurance companies of overbilling the federal government for flood damage from Hurricane Katrina, a judge who unsealed the case on Monday said.
A legal team led by high-profile litigator Richard “Dickie” Scruggs filed the [whistleblower] lawsuit on behalf of Cori and Kerri Rigsby, sisters from Ocean Springs, Miss., who worked for a company that contracted with State Farm.
The suit, which represents only one side of a legal argument, accuses insurance companies of pressuring engineers to falsify reports so storm damage could be blamed on flood water instead of wind, which would shift the financial burden to the National Flood Insurance Program.
Of course, if such overbilling did occur, it needs to be rectified. However, the claims would be more credible if they weren’t so deeply embedded in Scruggs’ war on the insurance industry.
With stories like this, and seeing the extent to which Scruggs’ vendetta is actually impacting elections and politics in the state, one has to wonder—why the heck would any business want to operate in Mississippi?