Scruggs wants contempt charge dismissed

Mississippi trial lawyer Richard Scruggs has asked a federal judge to throw out a charge accusing him of criminal contempt in a dispute related to insurance claims after Hurricane Katrina.

In court papers, attorneys for Scruggs and his law firm contend he was within the law when he gave Mississippi’s attorney general copies of sensitive papers related to storm claims that two whistleblowing sister had taken.

Special prosecutors accused Scruggs of contempt in August, saying he violated a court order by U.S. District Judge William Acker to give the documents to a claims adjusting firm that had filed a lawsuit and was seeking the records.

Scruggs’ attorneys claim he was allowed to release the records to the Mississippi attorney general under Acker’s order, so the charge should be dismissed.

Acker previously rejected a similar argument, but U.S. District Judge Scott Coogler is presiding over the contempt case.

The dispute comes in a lawsuit filed by E.A. Renfroe and Co. Inc., an adjusting firm that handled State Farm claims and fired the two whistleblowers — Cori and Kerri Rigsby, sisters from Ocean Springs, Miss. — after learning they had taken internal documents about post-Katrina claims.