Taxpayers or class action lawyers? Hood must choose sides in $14 million settlement

Legal Newsline, 4/3/8

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez chased criminal lawyers Joey Langston and Tim Balducci of Mississippi out of his court April 2, telling them they must return home to battle taxpayers over $14 million in class action proceeds.

“The issue of whether those monies are ultimately required to be turned over to the State is not an issue over which the Court has jurisdiction,” Gonzalez wrote.

“The appropriate allocation of such funds pursuant to state law concerns only the State and the Langston Firm,” he wrote.

Gonzalez abstained from an adversary proceeding that Langston’s law firm tried to launch in the bankruptcy of MCI WorldCom.