The U.S court system has numerous cases in it, they range from multi million dollar cases (including the bank crisis, or the car business for example) to less severe cases called torts. A tort is a legal term defined as “ A wrongful act that does not include breach of contract. This offense damages the injured parties property or reputation, leaving that party able to gain compensation.” (Dictionary.com) The book The King of Torts is about a man named Clay Carter. He has a stable job, it doesn’t pay as much as he wishes. He in the scheme of one week goes from making $100,000 a year to making $5,000,000 in one case. This is all because he filed something called a mass tort (also known as a class tort).
Now you might be thinking, “One case can’t get someone so rich so fast!” That is not true, the King of Torts was a good title for this book for several reasons. One being that this tort was Clay’s biggest one yet. It was the king of all the torts he has worked on. This tort was against a major drug company that created “miracle drugs” (page. 137) These drugs were rushed through creation and had many major health detriments. The one drug in particular he sued about was called Dyloft, this drug was supposed to help lessen the pain with Arthritis. The only problem was this drug cause tumors of the bladder. This was enough to make the company peruse a quick settlement of 100 million dollars. Clay obtained thirty three percent of that money in legal fees.
Another thing about the King of Torts is that Clay was deemed the “King of Torts” by his legal counter parts. The mass tort lawyers had made big settlements over silly argument, but not as big as Clay’s. He was now an unofficial king of torts. The massive settlement lead to claying buying a two million dollar yacht and a forty-five million dollar jet called “The Gulfstream IV”. It is disturbing what happens when people get a large sum of money.
Finally I believe this book’s title is relevant to the plot or the book in general because the phrase King of Torts is a creative play on words. The king of torts refers to the overall size of this class action law suit. It involved over fifty thousand plaintiffs all complaining of these tumors that had to be removed surgically.
Henry Drummond - the lawyer for the defense. He is famous for taking the cases of unpopular clients.
He was a mysterious unknown figure in the shadows; a slithering serpent in the courtroom. The defense attorney for the Scopes Monkey Trial was a cunning man. Clarence Darrow had difficulty defending his client, John T. Scopes, against his opponent, William Jennings Bryan. To everyone’s surprise however, he proved that he could prevail, even if he was under pressure from the world around him. Though Scopes was found guilty under Darrow, he surprisingly only had to pay a fine of one hundred dollars.
It is also possible that his original lawyer Samuel Mansfield Bay saw opportunities for a large reward due to his services to Scott, and initiated litigation. For example, some feel that Bay’s “object was to pave the way for a suit against the Emerson estate for the twelve years’ wages to which Scott would be entitled to,” (Herda, 29) should he win the case. This shows that, money could have been the driving force behind this case. This also shows that Scott may have been persuadable to another person’s reasons for pursuing the case. In addition, if this was true and Scott “had been illegally held as a slave since 1834.” (Herda, 30) This shows that, he would have the right to compensation, and therefore be entitled to what would be a lot of money. This also shows, how a mistake by a master in his traveling...
Henry’s stepfather got him a job in the office of the Virginia Court of Chancery. This job got Henry interested in Law. While on the job, Clay met a man named George Wythe. George Wythe had a crippled hand, so he appointed Clay as his secretary. After about four years of working under Wythe, Clay started “reading the law”, by working and studying with Wythe and Robert Brooke. Henry was allowed to practice law in 1797.
Thomas Morton came to the New England in the year 1622. Morton was educated for the law at Oxford. Upon his arrival to Plymouth people had already heard he came with shady past. He had come by his inheritance from which he was “plaintiff, lawyer, and beneficiary” (McWilliams pg 5).
Johnny’s experience as an attorney falls far short of being the legal crusader that he envisioned for himself. Rather, it is quite short-lived . His legal career ends abruptly when his unpreparedness for an easy trial against a wealthy white woman causes him to lose the case for his client. Upon his hu...
It is my opinion that the law as currently written (both legislative and common) does not provide the protections for the aggrieved as I assume was envisioned in its intent. For a rich party to merely pay a reset damage in order to capitalize (perhaps in light of market changes or new information) in breaching a valid agreement seeing it as merely a cost of enrichment is an affront to the stability of contract law and enforcement. The ability to award damages for “profit realized” would do well to cement the theory that an agreement is enforceable and legally binding. This is good for business internationally as our global markets will know that an agreement formed in the United States will be honored and the civil laws guaranteeing its enforcement has
Tort is a word developed to describe in general the different types of claims that are normally imposing economic and financial losses that are because of some kind of misbehavior, apart from breach of contract. The term is used to refer to this type of claims, false presentations, fraud, breach of contract, encouragement, unfair competition, trade name and trademark infringement and interference with business relationships (Emanuel, S.
In the case of Michael Jackson’s death multiple wrongful death suites were filed. His personal physician Conrad Murray was on trial for involuntary manslaughter. November, 7, 2011 he was charged with being guilty. He received four years in prison. The Jackson family also sued AEG Live, the concert promotor for the This Is It Tour. The company hired Murray to be his personal physician. The jury found that AEG was not responsible for Jackson’s death. AEG did not have to compensate Katherine Jackson with the millions of dollars she asked for. This trial and Michael Jackson’s death had the in...
Rooted in the intentions of weeding out dangerous practitioners, the blooms of the litigations created a toxic environment for physicians. The causes behind medical malpractice are justified, but the application needs work. Lawsuits inadvertently raise physicians’ liability insurance premiums, which financially and emotionally stresses them, who in turn leave an area and its residents. The effects of the lawsuits are felt by both doctors and patients. This is not to say that many physicians do not flourish in the healthcare system — they do. Hopefully, the effects of medical malpractice lawsuits can transform the toxic environment into one that facilitates growth and prosperity for
had to go through in his life in his attempts for justice to be served.
Gifted with the darkest attributes intertwined in his imperfect characteristics, Shakespeare’s Richard III displays his anti-hero traits afflicted with thorns of villains: “Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous / By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams” (I.i.32-33). Richard possesses the idealism and ambition of a heroic figure that is destined to great achievements and power; however, as one who believes that “the end justifies the means”, Richard rejects moral value and tradition as he is willing to do anything to accomplish his goal to the crown. The society, even his family and closest friends, repudiate him as a deformed outcast. Nevertheless, he cheers for himself as the champion and irredeemable villain by turning entirely to revenge of taking self-served power. By distinguishing virtue ethics to take revenge on the human society that alienates him and centering his life on self-advancement towards kingship, Richard is the literary archetype of an anti-hero.
He breeds anger in Clarence and the populace, not of himself, but of Edward and the rightful heirs. "We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe,"3 he exclaims as his brother is hauled away to the tower. He preys on the "hateful luxury And bestial appetite"4 of the citizenry, catapulting himself to the thrown over a heap of bodies: deaths that hang on his head. But, it is Richard's attitude that his end goal of the crown justifies the murderous means that so closely links ...
Have you ever thought about if the person next to you is a killer or a rapist? If so, what would you want from the government if the person had killed someone you know? Should they receive the death penalty? Murderers and rapists should be punished for the crimes they commit and should pay the price for their wrongdoing. Having the death penalty in our society is humane; it helps the overcrowding problem and gives relief to the families of the victims who had to go through an event such as murder.
This case illustrated that there were real consequences to white collar crime. In addition to paying the fifty million dollar fine, he relinquished another fifty million dollars of his illegal trading profits. (He still had millions remaining, however, from his illegal gains.) His actual prison sentence was three years, yet he served only twenty-two months in the federal prison at Lompoc, California, which was known to have a “country-club” atmosphere.