Richard Scruggs, a nationally known trial lawyer with close ties to the Mississippi Attorney General's office, may soon be facing criminal contempt charges as a result of his handling of confidential documents regarding State Farm Fire and Casualty Co.'s handling of Hurricane Katrina-related claims.

As a result, State Farm wants him disqualified from at least one case, while Scruggs on Wednesday hit the company with lawsuit claiming it has violated the federal Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organization Act (RICO).

Scruggs has been heavily involved in alleging that insurance companies in Mississippi intentionally miscalculated the amount of flood damgage, covered by a federal program, done to policyholders' homes by Katrina.

U.S. District Judge William Acker questioned Scruggs about his apparent non-compliance with an injunction issued in early December. Scruggs was ordered to return documents received from two former employees of E.A. Renfroe, Inc., who said they uncovered evidence that the company was unfairly handling post-Hurricane Katrina claims.

After the Dec. 8 injunction, Scruggs delivered those documents over to Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood instead of to the attorneys of E.A. Renfroe, a company hired by State Farm to investigate hurricane-related claims.

E.A. Renfroe is suing former employees Kerri Rigsby and Cori Rigsby Moran.

"While engaged in work on Katrina as Renfroe employees on behalf of State Farm, Moran and Rigsby learned of acts and practices of State Farm that the two defendants concluded were inappropriate and/or illegal," Acker wrote.

"Instead of sharing their concerns with Renfroe, Moran and Rigsby clandestinely copied approximately 15,000 confidential documents off of State Farm's computer and turned them over to The Scruggs Law Firm."

No longer employees at Renfroe, Rigsby and Moran each make $150,000 a year as consultants for insurance litigation. Acker wrote that the two sisters and Scruggs' firm were "now engaged in a cooperative effort" to sue State Farm.

Acker recommended to U.S. Attorney Alice Martin on Friday that she file criminal contempt charges against Scruggs. State Farm followed that up by asking to have Scruggs and all his law partners disqualified from McIntosh v. State Farm.

Scruggs' RICO suit is the culmination of a nearly two year-long investigation, the Scruggs Katrina Group said.

"We have proof that State Farm and its partners conspired to cheat policyholders out of rightful payments worth millions of dollars," SKG attorney Don Barrett said.

"They willfully caused victims of Hurricane Katrina extreme emotional and financial distress in their calculated strategy to falsify and conceal evidence, intimidate anyone who got in their way, and use their privileged position to pressure policyholders into accepting pitiful payments both before and during the mediation process."

E.A. Renfroe and Forensic Analysis and Engineering Co. are also defendants in the suit. Former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore added, "In my estimation the allegations in this complaint ought to be criminal charges...In my opinion there are crimes here."

Of course, Moore and Scruggs go way back. Scruggs' firm earned $1.4 billion when it was hired by Moore to negotiate the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in the late 1990s.

This year, his firm made $26 million when 640 lawsuits against State Farm that made up part of Hood's class action suit against five insurance companies were settled.

A report from The Associated Press said Scruggs stood to make another $20 million if the second part of that settlement had been approved. It grouped together 35,000 policyholders who had not sued yet but still could. Hood is now moving to force State Farm to settle.

Scruggs is also a campaign contributor to Hood.