A television movie scheduled to premier on Monday will highlight some of the most embarrassing moments of the past decade for the nation's trial lawyers.
InJustice recounts the stories of several nationally prominent members of the plaintiffs’ bar who made millions in litigation before falling from success in criminal cases. The movie, with financing help from the legal arm of the business-backed U.S. Chamber of Commerce, goes so far as to label the tactics of some plaintiffs’ lawyers a “cancer” on the nation.
The movie is set to debut two weeks after another legal documentary, the pro-plaintiff film Hot Coffee, appeared on television. The timing appears to be coincidental because both works have been years in the making, but they’re likely to serve as counterpoints for each other as trial lawyers and businesses contend for the public’s support.
InJustice is set to air at 10 p.m. on Monday on Reelz, a cable movie channel, though its creators are hoping to make it more widely available in the future.
Executive producer Brian Kelly said in an interview that he wanted to make a movie that focused on the crimes that some trial lawyers were committing as they tried to put together cases. InJustice zeroes in on Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, who made millions in tobacco litigation before being convicted in a Mississippi judicial bribery scheme, and on Milberg Weiss partners William Lerach and Melvyn Weiss, two famed securities class-action lawyers who pleaded guilty in a case about kickbacks to plaintiffs.
“If these are three of the most influential trial lawyers in the country, and they do end up in jail, what is wrong?” Kelly said.
Kelly said he knew little about those criminal cases until he began making InJustice about three years ago. Other things inspired him to pursue the project: a Reader’s Digest story about failed silicosis litigation, in which medical diagnoses were retracted after fraud allegations, and Kelly’s own experience with the legal system when he tried to evict a tenant who then sued him in Maryland state court.
“What they did successfully was just keep me in the court system. I won, but it cost me $80,000,” he said.
The movie includes clips from interviews with a handful of well-known corporate defense lawyers, including John Beisner, head of the mass torts practice at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, and Philip Howard, a partner at Covington & Burling.
Click here to see the movie’s trailer.
Ms. Fein,
With all due respect, "[a]s a fan of lawyers," you must be certifiably insane.
And Mr. Petersen,
Why conflate crookedly parasitic personal injury lawyers with those you reference as "unindicted banksters"?
There are finite sets of both bankers and personal injury lawyers who work to fraudulently enrich themselves at the expense of our economy and the public's respect for the rule of law. But the existence of one set of scumbags doesn't negate that of the other. Besides, there is no shortage of so-called documentaries critical of bankers or other "[p]oor corporate citizens." It's time the lawyers took a little heat, don't you think?
Yours,
Darren McKinney
American Tort Reform Association
Washington, D.C.
Posted by: Darren McKinney | July 11, 2011 at 09:56 AM
Poor corporate citizens! It's difficult to imagine how they deal with such an imbalance of resources, influence over the judiciary and the onerous constraints forced upon them by the Citizens United decision. I hope the U.S. Chamber of Commerce can assist them in distributing whatever their version of the "truth" is. For every "poster child" plaintiff's lawyer, there are at least 10 unindicted banksters without even surveying industries besides financial services.
Posted by: Don Petersen | July 08, 2011 at 04:08 PM
As I read this, my brain scanning for political bias (and finding it), I was sort of thinking, "This sounds like a disgruntled plaintiff who decided to vent his disgruntlement on 'the System.'" And, by golly, I got down to the bottom and discovered my suspicions were valid.
As a fan of lawyers (I'm not one), I can say that it's pretty easy to find bad or corrupt lawyers, just as it is to find bad or corrupt human beings in any field of endeavor. Such as documentary filmmaking, say.
It's so much more difficult to analyze the complexity of any human being, such as Dickie Scruggs, who did terrific work against tobacco companies, on behalf of all of us. And then also bribed a judge.The charge against him does not wipe his record of his good works. Only a Manichean could see it that way.
As a current plaintiff in two lawsuits (and once I worked for Paramount Pictures), I could advise Brian Kelly how to pursue a lawsuit intelligently and with reasonable expectations. I would not advise him to take his egocentric beef with "The System" and turn it into what sounds like a bent screed.
Posted by: Naomi Fein | July 08, 2011 at 03:47 PM