Attorney Greg Francis: Dilligence and Pursuit were Key for $1.25 Billion Award
By DOTTIE PARIS, Features Editor
ORLANDO — Trying to convince Congress is no easy feat. But attorney Greg Francis did just that as a leader of the legal team that fought to win an award of $1.25 billion in a case known as the Black Farmers Settlement.
The farmers claimed they were unfairly denied loans and other assistance from the Agriculture Department over a period of many years. Federal judge Paul Friedman approved the settlement last October. There were many intricate elements to the victory.
In addition to history, Francis, a partner at the Orlando law office of Morgan and Morgan, and his team, were also battling a time element. It took years to get justice for the farmers involved in Pigford v. Glickman and finding family members of the original farmers who filed claims of discrimination against the Agriculture Department was difficult.
Then it was a matter of actually getting the suit funded, which happened a year ago, but there were also final approvals needed on the terms of the settlement.
“This is a case where tens of thousands had been discriminated against,” said Francis, whose practice centers on malpractice and wrongful death. “It was a revisiting of a previous case. The initial case was Pigford vs. Glickman, who was the Secretary of Agriculture at the time. Many of the people who should have had their claims evaluated, didn’t get heard because they were late.”
“When Ronald Reagan was elected, he did away with the office where you would complain if you were discriminated against,” Francis said. “So between 1980 and 1996 if you were a black farmer and you applied for a loan or assistance and were denied, there was no mechanism for you to complain to. During those years, you had no recourse.”
“Because the USDA had the farm extension offices in rural counties, they’d be run by a committee of local farmers or local officials from USDA,” Francis said. “Everyone had their own kingdom or fiefdom, they had complete authority to turn down a loan for consideration. They could say, ‘No I’m not giving you a loan,’ or they would put terms on the loan, or say they were out of applications, or ‘Go to Orange County.’ This is absolutely a victory. White farmers that were neighbors were getting loans.”
Francis and the other two lead lawyers, one of three lead lawyers with Andy Marks of Crowell & Mooring in Washington, D.C., and State Senator Hank Sanders of Selma, Ala., had to convince Congress and the government that they needed to re-address the fact that many of the farmers who were discriminated against before, had been slighted again by the fact that they didn’t get notification of an initial lawsuit and couldn’t participate.
“It was difficult because trying to mete out a settlement, there were zealous negotiations with the government to get them to settle and agree to appropriate more money and get it passed through the house,” Francis said. “Negotiations between the lawyers and the U.S. Department of Agriculture as to what they thought was a reasonable number of claimants will be successful.’
“In the initial Pigford action, if you were successful in proving you were discriminated against and you complained about the process, you’d be entitled to $50,000 dollars.”
While this was a particularly difficult challenge in part because of the number of people involved on all sides, the fight needs to continue, he said.
“The pursuit of justice has never been easy,” Francis said. “There are those who would stand in the way of justice. We’re in the home stretch but the struggle continues to the end. We’re close, we’re committed to shepherding home this essential act of justice.”
He has learned a tremendous amount.
“There were challenges,” he said. “To try to organize these potential tens of thousands of people, devise a process to serve these tens of thousands of potential clients. We had a very detailed notification process through newspapers, websites, TV, and different farm organizations.”
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