Mississippi News

Diamond Foods failed to show that two law firms made secret political donations to become class counsel in a securities fraud class action, a federal judge ruled.

State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. wants a federal judge to dismiss a jury's fraud verdict against it, or grant a new trial, while two former insurance adjusters who won the case want to expand their investigation of how the company handled post-Hurricane Katrina flood claims.

The decision by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood to appoint his predecessor Mike Moore and Ridgeland attorney Billy Quin as outside counsels to handle the state’s litigation against BP over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill will draw some familiar political fire.

Mississippi has become the third state to sue BP PLC over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Attorney General Jim Hood announced Friday that the state had filed lawsuits in federal and state court. The move comes one day before the three-year statute of limitations expires for claims related to the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon that killed 11 and the oil spill that followed.

A federal appeals court panel on Friday upheld the conviction of Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, one of Mississippi's most prominent attorneys before going to prison on judicial corruption charges.

A federal jury has found State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. committed fraud against the federal government and submitted a false record to support fraud after Hurricane Katrina.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision that Mississippi’s $1 million cap on noneconomic damages arising from civil litigation does not violate the state constitution’s separation of powers clause does not necessarily mean state courts have to abide by the ruling.

A three-judge panel will hear on Monday former Oxford attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs’ appeal on his 2008 guilty plea that he improperly influenced Judge Bobby DeLaughter.  Attorneys for Scruggs, 66, will seek to convince the judges his offer to help DeLaughter’s pursuit of a federal judgeship was not a bribe but protected “political speech.”

Mississippi's $1 million cap on noneconomic damages for such things as pain and suffering was upheld Wednesday, bringing an end to a woman's legal efforts to collect the full damages awarded by a jury after a traffic wreck.

Thousands of Mississippi Toyota owners and lessors should receive a postcard in the mail between now and mid-April inviting them to be part of a class-action lawsuit against the company.