LAW AND MORE - In Santa’s Bag - “Kings of Tort” by Alan Lange and Tom Dawson
Terrific timing. In bookstores and online by December 2nd, “Kings of Tort” captures the rise and fall of the kingpins of southern law and politics. It is published by Pediment.
Written by Mississippi-based Alan Lange and Tom Dawson, it’s the best-yet authoritative work on imprisoned plaintiff attorney Dick Scruggs and his merry band of other lawyers, judges, and political heavies. Remember it was Scruggs who brought down BigTobacco in the early 1990s. And that led directly to the almost-disaster of lead paint public nuisance litigation - which has moved into the more certain disaster of coal-emissions public nuisance litigation. Think TVA.
Scruggs is a compelling character. In covering how the feds were moving in on him, I asked lawyers: How could this have happened? How does a cunning mind and streetfighter cross the line from doing well by doing good to flamboyantly breaking the law? Plaintiff attorney Bill Marler of Marler Clark Law Firm answered in one word: Greed. Maybe that’s it. Maybe greed was the force which pulled Scruggs across that line that usually separates clever players from jailed ones.
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