We recently linked to a story about tort reform in Mississippi.

The current New Yorker tells the tale of lawyer Dickie Scruggs, big time Democrat and big time tort lawyer who won the billion dollar settlement from the tobacco industry, making himself very rich.

Now he’s pleaded guilty to bribery charges and will be sentenced next month.  

It’s an ugly story of greed, politics. From the abstract:

Richard Scruggs, known as Dickie, was arguably the most successful tort lawyer in America and the man who took down Big Tobacco without conducting a single trial. Although Dickie is former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott’s brother-in-law, he’s a stout Democrat. Scruggs was not present at the rally in November because that morning a federal grand jury in Oxford returned an indictment charging Scruggs, his son, Zach, and three other men with conspiring to offer a $50,000 bribe to a judge in Calhoun City.

The reaction to the indictment was incredulity. Scruggs was said to have scored a billion-dollar fee in the tobacco case. Why would he bother with a tawdry little bribery scam? After graduating near the top of his class at Ole Miss Law, Scruggs worked at a pair of Jackson law firms before moving with his wife, Diane, to Pascagoula and opening a law office. He made his first fortune trying asbestos cases.

Scruggs began to formulate his own brand of litigation, of which the actual practice of law was only one part. The strategic manipulation of politics and public opinion was just as important. Mentions Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore. Moore deputized Scruggs to develop the 1994 Medicaid suit against Big Tobacco.

Yep, he got a legal permit to be a stickup man. You can despise tobacco companies and still despise the foul system that beat them.