3 things to know about blockbuster New Orleans staged wreck trial as opening arguments begin

Opening arguments began Wednesday morning in the blockbuster insurance fraud trial of two New Orleans personal injury lawyers accused of scheming for years to crash cars into big rigs and bilking insurance companies for huge payouts.

Here are some key things to know about the case.

The players

The trial taking place at New Orleans' federal courthouse on Poydras Street, plus another slated for August, follow a yearslong probe that moved at a slow pace and, at one point, left court watchers wondering whether any of the attorneys now accused of running the scheme would even be charged.

The defendants this week are Vanessa Motta, a Hollywood stuntwoman-turned-lawyer, and Jason Giles and the King Firm. They are accused of orchestrating the scheme to fill cars with passengers and pay drivers to ram them into 18-wheelers on New Orleans highways. The lawyers then sued for big insurance payouts, federal prosecutors allege.

The trial culminates a federal probe that began to churn out indictments beginning in 2020.

The first person indicted in the case, Cornelius Garrison, is expected to loom large over the trial. He had admitted to FBI agents that he was a driver in the scheme and provided information against the lawyers. Then, in 2020, he he was gunned down at his grandmother's Gentilly doorstep.

Neither of the defendants on trial this week were charged with Garrison's murder. Sean Alfortish, another indicted attorney Motta plans to blame for her role in the scheme, faces a separate trial for the killing and other counts set for August.

The timeline

Jury selection in the trial began Monday and took two days, twice as long as attorneys and Chief U.S. District Judge Wendy Vitter had anticipated.

For hours on Tuesday, Vitter peppered prospective panelists with questions about their car accident histories and experiences with auto insurers. Many gave answers that laid bare how many people had dealt with car wrecks and rough goes with insurance in Louisiana, a state where auto insurance costs and rates of driver fatalities both rank among the nation's worst.

"I don't like insurance companies," said one prospective juror who said he had to pay after being the victim in a hit and run, despite having "put the Womac on 'em," reciting the slogan of the Womac Law Firm.

Vitter and the attorneys finally settled on a panel of 12 jurors, plus alternates, around 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Attorneys were set to begin their opening arguments on Wednesday morning. The trial is expected to last weeks.

The arguments

Motta's attorney, Sean Toomey, is expected in his opening statement to try to pin her role in the fraud scheme on Alfortish, with whom she shares a 2-year-old child.

Alfortish was a "master manipulator" who inflicted a "terrible betrayal" upon Motta, Toomey said in a recent filing.

But Prosecutors have described that approach as an "about-face" in Motta's defense after she previously argued that she and Alfortish were victims of circumstance.