Dickie Scruggs, one of the lawyers who helped bring about the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, has just been indicted on bribery charges.
Under the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA), trial lawyers received $15 billion (not million, billion) from the big tobacco companies, in a deal which also provided the tobacco companies who joined the deal with protection against competition from little tobacco companies that refused to join the deal and pay off the trial lawyers. 46 States and 6 territories entered into the deal, which gave state governments billions of dollars. CEI is challenging the deal in court.
As I noted in the Wall Street Journal, lawyers in New York State received $625 million under the deal, just for working on a copycat lawsuit.
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How else is the “little guy” going to protect himself from wrongdoings by “big business” if not through plaintiff lawyers willing to give it a go? Too many times in my career I’ve seen with my own eyes executives on the verge of making a decision that would be downright dangerous (even on life/death matters) for consumers, only to be stopped by the thought of litigation by someone like Dickie Scruggs, if not Dickie himself. I think the fees the plaintiff lawyers earn is commiserate with the pain companies/executives deserve if they put profit over consumer health and truth. Re: Scruggs’ indictment. I’m sure with his successes, Dickie Scruggs has made lots of enemies (tobacco, asbestos, insurance execs) over course of his career as well as made countless lawyers on the defense side a wee bit jealous.