Among other things, State Farm is asking District Court Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden in the Southern District of Mississippi to restrict the Rigsbys' attorneys from introducing government reports, making any reference to government investigations or grand jury proceedings, and questioning Thomas and Pamela McIntosh, who separately filed a landmark bad-faith suit with one-time prominent plaintiffs' attorney Rickard “Dickie” Scruggs against the insurer after Katrina.

The McIntoshes settled with State Farm for $250,000 and cleared the insurer of all bad-faith allegations in September 2008 but it was their insurance claim that was at the center of the Rigsbys' allegations.

The sisters took thousands of State Farm documents and handed them over to Scruggs, who is now serving time in prison after pleading guilty to charges related to the attempted bribery of a Mississippi Circuit Court judge. The documents were supposedly proof the insurer was guilty of fraud.

Now years later, the court has decided the Rigsbys' testimony during the whistle-blower lawsuit can only be related to the McIntosh claim—the only claim in which the sisters have firsthand knowledge.

Also new to the docket is a ruling by Ozerden that State Farm cannot use a supplemental jury questionnaire to weed prospective jurors.

The only motion “in limine” the Rigsbys have filed was one to prevent State Farm from using allegations against them in a countersuit during this trial. Another federal judge, who has since died, previously ruled the countersuit suit should remain separate, so as not to confuse the jurors.