Scruggs Represents the System at its Worst

A new book titled “The Fall of the House of Zeus” by newspaper reporter Curtis Wilkie reads like, as the Wall Street Journal describes, a John Grisham novel.  Unfortunately, this story isn't fiction.

The book tells the story of Dickie Scruggs, the infamous Mississippi trial lawyer who made his vast fortune on asbestos and Big Tobacco cases, was found guilty of bribery and sent to prison in 2008. In a feature on the book, the Wall Street Journal describes Scruggs’ former kingdom, the world of Mississippi politics, as a “network of fixers and back-scratchers who have controlled the state for half a century.”

The book quotes Scruggs at a Prudential Financial panel discussion in 2002:

“The trial lawyers have established relationships with the judges that are elected. They’re state court judges; they’re populists. They’ve got large populations of voters who are in on the deal. They’re getting their piece in many cases. And so, it’s a political force in their jurisdiction, and it’s almost impossible to get a fair trial if you’re a defendant in some of these places . . . The cases are not won in the courtroom. They’re won on the back roads long before the case goes to trial. Any lawyer fresh out of law school can walk in there and win the case, so it doesn’t matter what the evidence or the law is.”

The worst part about this is that trial lawyers like Scruggs continue to abuse the system for their own interests and at the expense of the everyday citizen.