MK, faithful reader, points me to this post, describing the current state of play on the Pigford provision in the new farm bill. The major issue seems to be estimating the number of claims that will be filed and will ultimately succeed and what the dollar amount of those settlements will be.
Only a cynic would note this sentence: "In contrast [to the prior legislation], the House farm bill would allow late-filing Pigford claimants to file a civil action, where claimants are unlikely to have the same success rate...." Why might it be noteworthy? What do you need to file a "civil action"? A lawyer. How does a lawyer get paid? Presumably (based my extensive legal education reading John Grisham and Scott Turow) on a contingency basis--a third or a half. So this provision might be providing, depending on whose estimate turns out to be right, from $33 million to $1.5 billion for underpaid lawyers.
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