Hey, South Mississippians! Who wants to be a juror in the Rigsby vs. State Farm case?
Before raising your hand, ask yourself these follow-up questions:
- How do you think insurers handled things after Katrina? What about FEMA: Do you think they are trustworthy? How about insurance adjusters: honest or dishonest?
- Did you sue an insurance company after Katrina? What about your Aunt Hilda?
- Have you ever been dropped by your insurance company?
- Ever hear of the Risgby sisters? What did you read in the papers or see on the television about this case?
The preceding interrogatories (that's courtroom speak for questions) were brought to you by State Farm. And if you get that lucky jury-duty notice in the mail, the insurer wants you to answer what is called a “supplemental jury questionnaire” (SJP). They'll even pay for the postage to and from your home.
I took the liberty of shortening the queries, but according to court documents, State Farm is asking a judge to approve the questionnaire in order to “weed out by stipulation those responding with answers requiring automatic dismissal for cause.”
It's not outlandish. Numerous courts have used an SJP to screen potential jurors, State Farm says.
The insurer wants to use the SJP because it says residents of the Gulf Coast have been left “with experiences and/or attitudes that may make it hard for them to be completely fair to the parties involved in this dispute.”
The dispute: Whistleblowers Cori and Kerri Rigsby—former independent claims adjusters—filed a well-publicized False Claims Act (FCA) lawsuit against State Farm in April 2006. The sisters claim the insurer doctored engineering reports after Katrina so it could allegedly send losses to the National Flood Insurance Program.
The years following the lawsuit filing are marked with national print and broadcast news; public outrage; the demise of a once-prominent attorney (Dickie Scruggs); the death of the presiding judge; and countless pre-trial motions to dismiss the case, limit its scope and disqualify potential witnesses.
Finally, a trial date was set for March 25, 2013.
But who is going to be able to sit on the jury to hear this case? Are you out if you got dropped by your insurer or if you filed a lawsuit against it?
If so, we can basically put a big “X” on anyone from Hancock, Harrison, Jackson, Pearl River, Stone and George counties. The nonrenewal notices after Katrina traveled up the state higher than that, I know. I'm assuming Katrina lawsuits were likewise not contained to the state's southernmost counties.
Are you disqualified if you saw the “20/20” report on ABC News with the Rigsbys after Katrina? Or if you followed the downfall of pseudo-celebrity Scruggs, which consistently re-energized the mentioning of the Rigsby case?
“Understanding whether experiences or attitudes about insurance companies influence jurors' [abilities] to be completely fair is essential for State Farm to get a fair trial.” That's what State Farm says.
Seems to me there will be a heck of a lot of tainted jurors to weed from the pool with or without an SJP—which, predictably, the Rigsby sisters oppose.
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