Posted on Sun, Feb. 17, 2008

-- Victims of contractor fraud after Hurricane Katrina will have the opportunity Thursday to receive fee legal advice at clinics sponsored by the nonprofit Mississippi Center for Justice.

The center's senior attorney, Reilly Morse, said the clinic will feature legal talent from the international firm O'Melveny & Myers, which is volunteering services to help initiate lawsuits against contractors who have defrauded residents.

"We're always interested in people who can't afford their own lawyers," Morse said. "We're looking for people whose Katrina recovery has been thwarted by a contractor taking the money and not doing the work, or doing only part of it.

"Once that happens, their finances spiral downward, their house still isn't repaired, they go further into debt trying to pay off material suppliers and sometimes they lose their house."

Morse said investigators from the Mississippi attorney general's contractor-fraud unit also will attend the clinics being held in each of the three Coast counties. They will review cases for potential criminal fraud.

George Riley, one of the nation's premier intellectual-property litigators, and other attorneys from O'Melveny & Myers will work with residents. Riley is from Memphis and has family roots in north Mississippi.

Morse said attorneys from O'Melveny and the center will review residents' cases, then pursue lawsuits in those cases where contractor fraud is discovered. Cases should involve $5,000 or more.

Residents should bring documentation to the clinics, including construction contracts, estimates, payment records, any records that show what was work was done or not done, and any claims from unpaid vendors.

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MISSISSIPPI