With the ambulance lights flashing at Sago, Charleston personal injury lawyer Tim Bailey took a page from New Martinsville colleague H. John Rogers’ playbook. Remember Rogers’ Rule: “if somebody can make $50 million by running to Yeagar Airport while the ashes are smoldering, why not?”

Bailey, according to the Wall Street Journal, was camped out at Sago in a playpen of personal injury lawyers, trolling for clients, shamelessly seeking to profit from the grief of the mining families and tragedy of their local community.

His imitation of the H. John tactic, it seems, has paid off. Bailey has reached a confidential settlement with a manufacturer of mine materials used to seal Sago.

Meanwhile, other Sago plaintiffs are miffed that the lawsuit they hoped would reap at least $10.5 million, before punitive damages, was settled for less than a fifth of that. With West Virginia courts delivering punitive damage verdicts in the quarter-billion dollar range these days, no wonder.

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