News from December 2007
Poll claims Missourians don't want SC vote: lobbyists
Missouri Supreme Court JEFFERSON CITY -- Activists in favor of maintaining the so-called Missouri Plan for selecting the state's Supreme Court say a strong majority of Missourians agree with them.
Hood in middle of $14 million legal fee fight
Hood NEW YORK CITY - Most politicians would leap at a chance to win back millions of dollars from attorneys under federal investigation, but Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood must pass up the chance because he hired them.
Hood's site making transition
Hood JACKSON, Miss. - After its redesign, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's website has a different look -- both in layout and content.
Balducci apparently no longer a SAAG
Balducci NEW YORK - Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood's office says it is pretty sure it is no longer employing attorney Timothy Balducci, who recently pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe a state judge.
Scruggs gets new judge in contempt proceedings
Scruggs BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A federal judge from Florida will preside over the criminal contempt case against prominent Mississippi trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs taking place in Alabama.
Joey Langston
Attorney at The Langston Law Firm in Booneville, Miss. Son of Joe Ray Langston, who founded The Langston Law Firm in 1964. Millsaps College; University of Mississippi School of Law (J.D. - 1983).
Scruggs private jet motion grounded
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - Allan Alexander sounded more like an airline industry spokesperson than a federal magistrate judge in one of her recent orders.
Retailers in bind on tobacco after Alaska SC ruling
Justice Warren W. Matthews JUNEAU -- Alaskan health bureaucrats have hailed a recent Supreme Court ruling that holds store owners legally liable if their employees - even unknowingly - sell tobacco to minors.
Hood says Scruggs indictment won't affect State Farm case, promises to prosecute wrongdoers
Hood JACKSON, Miss. - Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says the only connection between his case against State Farm and the indictment of prominent trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs is a fictional one.
Feds search another Mississippi attorney's office
Scruggs BOONEVILLE, Miss. - The FBI was searching the office of the attorney representing indicted trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs on Monday.
Scruggs says he needs his plane to prepare defense
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - Because his defense team is so spread out and he's facing criminal charges in more than one court, indicted Mississippi trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs says he needs to be allowed back on board his private jet.
Starcher says controversial comments hit wrong target
Starcher CHARLESTON, W. Va. - West Virginia Supreme Court Justice Larry Starcher apologized Thursday to the attorney to whom he recently referred as "window dressing" because of her Pakistani descent.
Hood tells LNL little in wake of Scruggs indictment
JACKSON, Miss. - As one of his special assistant attorneys general pleads guilty to a bribery charge and one of his largest campaign contributors prepares to defend himself against the same, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood has become uncharacteristically tight-lipped.
Recusal a popular issue with Scruggs cases
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - Three judges in Richard "Dickie" Scruggs' hometown of Oxford made the right decision when they separated themselves from the fee-dispute case that hatched a federal indictment against the prominent trial lawyer, a close follower of the events says.
Late Miss. Gov. Fordice could have predicted Scruggs' trouble
Fordice OXFORD, Miss. - Ten years after the Supreme Court of Mississippi turned the Attorney General's office into a mint cranking out easy money for lucky lawyers, the luckiest one of all is dragging down the whole state.
Scruggs' ethical lapses fail to stunt long career
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - Dickie Scruggs, acting on behalf of three million Mississippians in the 1990s, smuggled stolen documents to Congress, cheated a professor out of millions, and withheld fees from a lawyer he fired, according to the apparent victims of his actions.
Scruggs trial date set
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - In less than seven weeks, prominent Mississippi trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs will go on trial for allegedly conspiring to bribe a state judge.
Fellow defendant pleads guilty in Scruggs bribery case
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - Attorney Timothy Balducci pleaded guilty Tuesday afternoon to charges that he conspired to attempt to bribe a state judge and is now helping federal prosecutors with their case against prominent trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs.
Harron has been at home, attorney says
Harron CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Clarksburg attorney Jerald E. Jones said he is surprised CSX Transportation had trouble serving papers to Dr. Ray Harron in a federal lawsuit.
Lafayette judges asked off case before indictment of Scruggs
Scruggs OXFORD, Miss. - A little more than a week before a federal grand jury indicted prominent Mississippi trial lawyer Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, the state judge he allegedly attempted to bribe and two others recused themselves from presiding over the case from which the indictment sprung.