Veteran civil rights attorney A. Dwight Pettit said he expects to file about 10 lawsuits against the officers in federal court. In years past, attorneys had shied away from bringing such cases in federal court where the jury pool can stretch to conservative Western Maryland or the Eastern Shore. State law caps payments in these cases — around $400,000 and $500,000, Pettit says — but a federal judgment would not be bound by such caps.