King of Torts by John Grisham - a good read

I am one of those law abiding citizens, who has no clue what is the 'law' that I am abiding. I have never appreciated the study of law, considering it to be the job of the 'smoke-coated-lips' old men, sitting behind heaps of stale smelling files, in teak panelled offices. A bloodline of lawyers from my mother's side didn' t make me love the law either, or the study of law by my mother when I was in her womb. Nope, even the 'Abhimanyu' effect didn't happen with me.

But recently, when my friend got into an imbroglio, which may involve legal issues, and no one including himself had thought about consulting a lawyer yet, my overture to take him to the legal counsel surprised me. After the assurances of the attorney, my friend is able to breathe a sigh of relief, knowing completely well that he will win the case if there is a trial.

Thank you John Grisham.

It wasn't a Grisham that I consulted. I just read his novel, 'The King of Torts'.

A typical Grisham literature, a good one at that, 'The King of Torts' talks about a mediocre, limited ambitioned lawyer Clay Karter, working for the Government, suddenly thrust into riches and stardom, due to a tip off by a mysterious man. The mysterious man is a 'fire man’, who helps extinguish financial fires of the corporate companies that land up in disastrous situations.
Together they team up, to settle issues with huge Pharmacy companies, and pull down some others, in the game of mass action lawsuits, where they make millions.
These mass action lawsuits involve the detection of possible victims of bad drugs of some miraculous medicines of huge Pharmacy companies, by the lawyers, enrolling them in a huge group of clients, and threat to sue the companies. The companies that realize that they have screwed up come to the negotiating table, where the lawyers dictate terms, which is more detrimental to the clients than the companies. The lawyers treat the companies only as sources of money, with the main intention to make millions for themselves, rather than get justice to the clients.
The clients end up getting some amount of money, which they would not have expected to begin with. Hence, they are happy. The companies are rid of fear of losing billions in lawsuits, settling for millions, and they are happy. The only people not happy are the lawyers, who, despite getting the best of the deal, pursue their greed of amassing more millions.

This is a revelation to me, who believed that the lawyers battled more in the courts. Clay Karter never goes for a trial at the court, but makes his millions by sheer entrepreneurship, and of course, illegal suggestions by his mysterious friend. The novel details about the tumults that these mass action lawyers (torts) go through, the strategies they employ to bring the companies down on their knees, and they constant battle with their conscience for not getting their clients a fair deal. Also, the novel ventures into the settings of some of these lawyers, suing their own brethren to get justice to the cheated clients.

Clay Karter makes an interesting character, a respectable man in a dicey job, with a drop-dead gorgeous lingerie-model for a girlfriend, but a different woman as the love of his life.

Though the ending lacks the punch that made ‘The Runaway Jury’ by Grisham a runaway hit, ‘King of Torts’ surprises you with the details of a specialized job, that needs different types of skill sets than any other lawyer in his other novels.

It is the story of the rise and fall of the King of them all, the story of the ‘King of Torts’

Have fun reading it.