Friday, November 13, 2009

Richard Scruggs, history's greatest lawyer

Let's just steal an NMC post and comment thread, shall we?

Dickie Scruggs got into the judicial-bribery business (AFAWK, for the first time) trying to get the Jones Law Firm's suit against his group referred to arbitration.

After the bribery was exposed and Judge Lackey naturally recused himself, Judge Coleman took over, and sanctioned Scruggs's group by refusing to allow them to invoke the arbitration clause.

They appealed, and yesterday the Miss. Supreme Court held that (1) bribing judges was outside the scope of the partnership's business, hence Scruggs's partners weren't sanctionable for his trangressions, and thus (2) the case should go to arbitration.

Which brings us to: NMC's commenter Chesterfield:
So, do I have it right that the so-called brilliant, masterful, litigator extraordinaire Dickie Scruggs risked (and lost) his integrity, his right to practice law, his personal freedom, and potentially large sums of money by bribing a circuit court judge to grant a motion compelling arbitration in a matter that the MS Supreme Court would have ultimately granted anyway?
NMC:
Correct.

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