King Of Torts

Well I just finished reading the King of Torts (because I am a dork and read the book in a few days). It was a solid story, typical John Grisham stuff. I will not hesitate to say I do not know what I would do with that much money, but I would like to find out. That said, I think the book offers a solid look into the moral and ethical problems lawyers face every day. You are not supposed to solicit clients but that does not prevent me from seeing people on local television discussion their bankruptcy videos or how people have legitimate personal injury claims and should contact them. It seems to me that for these people to claim they are not "soliciting" is a joke.

That said, I think Grisham went a little over the top in the way he portrayed mass tort lawyers. I am an advocate of tort reform. I think malpractice claims are through the roof. I think that pain and suffering awards are all too often too large. However, I found it difficult to see a problem with the class action system that Grisham seems to feel was clear. A company made a bad product, lawyers found people that were damages by it. It seems his claim is that they are making money by FINDING PEOPLE THAT WERE HURT. Doesn't the end result (hurt people finding out they were wronged) justify lawyers finding hurt people? I'm not saying they are doing a public service, but it seems like Grisham is all too kind to the producers of faulty drugs. I also ditest the way he attacks the system for allowing lawyers to settle for all their clients against their wishes. If you have 26 thousand people, at least one will always want to go to trial. For Grisham's complaints about people setteling against their wishes to be rectified, he would have to eliminate class action and further clog the court dockets (26 thosand seperate cases) or create even more of a market for lawyers (26 thousand seperate settlements) and waste even more time. It is unfortunate that the lawyers in Grisham's story did not forsee things progressing as they did, however I think he drastically overstated the "corruptness" and problems in the system. The true problem is shotty research and design and drug companies more concerned with profit than helping people.