ICF: The Lawsuit
ICF, International, the company which won the contract from the state to implement the Road Home program is being sued in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge. The petitioners are requesting a class action. The lawsuit, which is being handled by members of the Couhig Partners lawfirm and Rob Couhig (a former member of the firm and candidate for Mayor of New Orleans in the last Mayoral election) names Don Massey as lead plaintiff. It alleges mismanagement, negligence and misrepresentation and requests injunctive relief and damages.
The petition alleges that Massey has been subjected to negligence by ICF that includes lost records, repetitive assessments, delays, and obfuscations.
It further alleges that ICF has engaged in a pattern of delay, bad faith, and conduct designed to impede, delay, and deny the delivery of grants to applicants.
We can only hope. This will be one of those cases which demonstrate whether there is justice in the system or if it is just us in the system.
EDIT: I had listed Adams and Reese as the representing lawfirm in the original version of this post. That was incorrect. Communication with Don Massey has revealed that the Couhig Partners firm is his actual legal representation, and I have amended the text to reflect this. I apologize for the prior error.
June 13th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Unfortunately, based on my nearly non-existent legal knowledge, I don’t think this case is going anywhere. Even if it was true, it is nearly impossible to prove that IFC intended to delay or deny grants. Incompetance is not illeagal, just incompetent. He might argue damages due to the delay, but that seems like a stretch given that this is a grant, not something directly owed to him.
June 14th, 2007 at 12:59 am
Another more interesting suit is the one when they start denying people grants because they ran out of money.
Or the one because they made incorrect grants, based on the policy.
ICF is incompetent.
The State of Louisiana offered this program to its citizens and hired ICF to implement the government policy. If the policy is applied in a discriminatory or arbitrary manner, the State may be given no choice but to make up the difference.