Settle a big case?  Do it on your own?  Have a little help from inside insurance company employees?  Here is a story of sordid settlement techniques:

"A Texas lawyer indicted for allegedly paying two former employees of The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. insurance settlement kickbacks has accused the employees of extorting $3 million from him.

Todd Hoeffner, 42, made the accusation in response to a malpractice lawsuit filed against him by his clients. The lawyer accused the two employees of The Hartford of forcing him to pay them $3 million from fees he earned representing 1,000 victims of silicosis. The insurer’s employees threatened to block settlements of the cases if he didn’t pay the bribes, he alleged.

"Employees of The Hartford held hostage the legal rights of Hoeffner and his clients in a plan calculated to enrich themselves," Chris Flood, his lawyer, wrote in papers filed Monday in federal court in Corpus Christi, Texas.

In June, Hoeffner was, himself, charged with bribing two former Hartford claims handlers, Rachel Rossow, 41, of Redding, and John Prestage, 36, of Newington. The three planned to share attorney’s fees obtained from more than $34 million in settlements for Hoeffner’s clients, the government alleged. His clients were exposed to lung-destroying silica dust in their jobs as sandblasters and foundry workers.

Hoeffner, Rossow and Prestage have been charged with conspiracy, mail fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering. "