Syndicated columnist Sid Salter reviews Kings of Tort
Perhaps no single legal or political scandal in Mississippi history has caused more consistent debate than the almost Shakespearean rise and downfall of trial lawyer Richard “Dickie” Scruggs.
For the better part of two decades, Scruggs was - depending on one’s profession and political predisposition - one of the most respected and reviled trial lawyers in America. Scruggs was the architect of the nation’s tobacco litigation and he and lawyers associated with him amassed a fortune from that and other mass tort litigation.
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In Kings of Tort (Pediment, $27.95), authors Alan Lange and Tom Dawson give readers a chance to see the tape transcripts and documents that led to Scrugg’s downfall and judge for themselves how well the feds made their case.
Dawson, now retired, was the lead federal prosecutor in the Scruggs case. Lange owns the yallpolitics.com blog that served as Ground Zero for new about the Scruggs probe.
Kings of Tort is a must-read for anyone building a serious personal library on Mississippi politics. It is also a cautionary tale about greed, hubris and how money greases the wheels of state politics.
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