Mississippi Litigation Review & Commentary : Mississippi Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Phillip W. Thomas Law Firm : MS Litigation Review & Commentary

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No, that's not a typo. Ford Motor Co. got a defense verdict in Jefferson County today at the conclusion of a two week trial.  

 The plaintiff was a passenger who was paralyzed in a roll-over of a Ford Explorer that was pulling a trailer. The driver of the Explorer passed out from hypoglycemia and ran off the road. Plaintiff's defect allegation was instability of the vehicle and that the seat belt did not work properly. The plaintiff asked for $9.5 million in closing.  

Barry Ford, Bill Jones and Everett White at Baker Donelson were among a team of lawyers representing Ford. Plaintiff's counsel were lawyers from South Carolina and New Orleans. Plaintiff had Deborah McDonald as local counsel, but it's my understanding that she was not brought in until shortly before trial.

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Ya'll Politics has this post this morning stating that Christi McCoy is out as the U.S. Attorney appointment for the Northern District and that the Curtis Ivy of Oxford is in. According to Ya'll: 

Today a source with insider knowledge tells YallPolitics McCoy's "deep" ties with Joey Langston, and other issues, stalled her possible nomination. The source then went on to say Curtis Ivy, who has been a contender since the beginning, is highly regarded by many involved.

YP could not independently confirm Ivy's chances, or whether McCoy's ties actually prevented her from becoming the U.S. Attorney, however the source has been spot on with many other issues, and finds him credible enough to worthy this post.
 

Ivy is an African-American assistant U.S. Attorney in the Northern District who has a good reputation. In June, it was widely reported that McCoy's name was already submitted to the White House. I discussed it in this post. If McCoy is out, it is a recent development that apparently was based on a decision made by the White House. Of course, the White House could make such a decision based on anticipated Republican opposition after floating the name to Republican Congressional leaders.

It has long been presumed that one of Mississippi's U.S. Attorney seats would go to a white and the other to an African-American. With McCoy being white, speculation in the Southern District focused on Natchez attorney Deborah McDonald. One question now is that if Ivy is in in the North, does it open the door in the South for someone like Cliff Johnson. There will be a lot of speculation on these issues in the coming days. 

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This article in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal confirms that Rep. Bennie Thompson submitted to President Obama Christi McCoy as the next U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi. McCoy is originally from Booneville and practices in Oxford.

The article mentions Forest attorney Constance Slaughter-Harvey as the potential nominee in the Southern District. That would be interesting, since Slaughter-Harvey is rumored to have removed her name from consideration. More recently, Deborah McDonald of Natchez is rumored to be the leading candidate.