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Monday, August 13, 2018

Pretty good gig if you can get it

Drainage project damaged my home

I imagine you could build a pretty healthy law practice out of just suing Sewerage and Water Board.
Months after a judge ruled in favor of a small group of homeowners who said construction of a mammoth drainage project in Uptown New Orleans had caused major damage to their houses, hundreds of more cases continue to remain in limbo.

The Sewerage & Water Board continues to fight against the claims of nearly 300 such homeowners, who say the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project cracked the foundations of their houses or caused other costly damage.
I feel like that particular suit was filed before they SELA digging even started. That's how predictable all of this has been.  As Jason Williams explains at the end of this story, these it's obvious why these suits are inevitable.
City Councilman Jason Williams, speaking at last month’s committee meeting, said the S&WB should go to the negotiating table rather than continue to fight the cases, arguing that the “only people who make out well” at the trials are the lawyers. Williams is a criminal defense lawyer.

“The Sewerage & Water Board is going to have to pay something, and putting it off is not in the board’s best interest and it’s not in the homeowners’ best interest,” Williams said. “To the extent that we can make this right by ending it and not dragging it on, I think that makes a lot of sense.”
Speaking of which, there are now lawsuits stemming from last year's floods. That might not be a "winnable" case either but the odds are it goes to a settlement as well. Either way, these guys get paid.  
The attorneys who filed the suit are with Bruno & Bruno and the Whitaker Firm, the same two firms representing hundreds of Uptown plaintiffs suing the S&WB over damage their homes sustained during work on the massive Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project.  

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