A federal judge in Texas has been assigned to preside over an Alabama attorney’s lawsuit that alleges imprisoned attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs and several others conspired to defraud him of millions in legal fees.
Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Edith H. Jones ordered William Roberts Wilson Jr.’s case reassigned to U.S. District Judge David Hittner in Houston, Texas.
Scruggs and Wilson, of Tuscaloosa, Ala., once worked together suing asbestos companies. Wilson claimed Scruggs cheated him out of money and used it to fund a batch of landmark anti-tobacco lawsuits of the 1990s, in which Scruggs reportedly earned as much as $848 million.
Nearly all the federal judges in north Mississippi, where the lawsuit was filed, have either presided over other Scruggs-related cases or asked not to preside for other reasons.
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