The King of Torts

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Clay finds himself suing a large company for a bad drug-- all with the help of this mysterious man who has befriended him. When he becomes a multi-millionaire overnight, the smell of money and his greed only increase. He is hailed as the "King of Torts" and instantly thrown into the spotlight. He buys houses and jets and big boats. He becomes even more greedy and careless, and ultimately winds up with next to nothing. But after reading The Street Lawyer and now the King of Torts, I had a hard time giving another of his books much thought. Unfortunately, in a bargain, I had bought many of his books and now I'm going to try and finish the lot (to get my money's worth). Clay tries his best to help his client, plunging into the most dangerous parts of the Washington D.C. slums in search of evidence which may help his case.

Do the regular average Joes actually get their money? Yes, but the lawyer is the one who profits. The fine small print at the bottom of the forms says that the lawyer gets a third of your settlement. And a third from the other thousands of clients.It really took me a while to get into this book. It started out pretty slow, but it was interesting. I kept reading, and I'm pretty disappointed with the novel.

Most people are chasing money in some form or another. The point that this novel makes is that even when one gains more of it than they know what to do with. They will not be happy. It brings out the consequences in terms of friendships, relationships, health and just generally the emptiness of a life focused on temporary things that will be worthless in eternity. The very next day a mysterious man walked into Clay's office. "Forget about Tequila," he said. "The reason he did what he did was because the pharmaceutical company hadn't tested his Tarvan properly. So sue the company instead. Here's how you do it."Don't take me wrong, I like Grisham's novels, I'm not a big fan, but I enjoy reading his books nonetheless. He is not a master storyteller but he writes enjoyable stuff. But as he digs deeper, Clay stumbles upon a conspiracy too horrifying to believe. A pharmaceutical giant has been secretly and illegally testing a new drug on addicts - one that helps stop addiction, but which drives them to random acts of violence.

Clay, like many other young John Grisham heroes, is losing his idealism about the law as he is ground down by overwork and association with the dregs of humanity. He is demoralized by trying to defend clients who deserve to be behind bars and who cannot be honest even with their own attorneys. He is in love with beautiful, sophisticated Rebecca Van Horn, with whom he has been having sex five times a week. She enjoys that aspect of their relationship but wants a husband who can provide the kind of upper-class lifestyle to which she is accustomed. Her parents regard Clay as a hopeless underachiever. They make him feel unwelcome at the upscale social affairs he manages to crash. His future looks grim. Then a violent incident in the slums of the big city changes Clay’s prospects as well as his entire moral and psychological outlook. The King of Torts (2003), a legal suspense novel by John Grisham, centers on a disillusioned public defender whose young client leads him into a complex legal battle which might restore his passion for the law. Although well received, The King of Torts is one of Grisham’s less-popular novels. Grisham worked in a US law firm before becoming a full-time writer. He is an award-winning, bestselling novelist best known for his legal thrillers. After quitting the law to write full-time, he once returned to the courtroom to defend a client in a case he had promised he’d take on. Meanwhile, after some attentive investigation by Clay into the murky drive behind his latest client's crimes, a dark stranger by the name Max Pace who represents a pharmaceutical company drops into Clay's life and offers him an opportunity to make riches. However, this would be by changing teams to settle potential lawsuits of families affected by both his client's crime and a slew of other criminals in the D.C. area who have been influenced to commit the crimes. Representing all these families early in a class-action lawsuit a.k.a. a mass tort, would stop cold the chance the lawsuits going to a courtroom trial and avoiding potential sky-high punitive penalties against the influencing organization responsible. That said, I loved this story and the writing. It was so good to delve into a really great legal thriller.

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There is some bad language and violence but nothing graphic. There are sexual inferences and some lude remarks but again not graphic. A master at the art of deft characterisation and the skilful delivery of hair-raising crescendos' - Irish Independent The man explains to Clay that his defendant was on a drug called Tarvan, which was amazing at cleaning up junkies had one serious problem-- after about a week of being off the drug, some of it's users had the uncontrollable urge to kill--totally at random. The drug company was now asking Clay to pay the victims' families (and Clay) a substantial sum of money to keep the story quiet. Clay agrees-- and so begins his slippery journey with big pharmaceuticals and mass cases. Clay, an experienced public defender, knows where to look for evidence that isn’t easily or readily available. He scours seedy parts of the city to find potential sources and witnesses that might help the case. During his investigation, Clay stumbles upon the records of another man who was convicted of murder. The man had no motive for killing a stranger, and he didn’t feel in control of his body. This makes Clay believe there’s something more disturbing going on than a random killing. He does do some good, like hiring his staff from the OPD and giving them big bonuses and gifts like a week in Paris for all of them plus one friend each, preferably a spouse, with all expenses paid. First class air, luxury hotel, the works.

I'm a bad, bad man," he wailed. "I have followed the path of materialism and abandoned the path of righteousness. I have made innocent people suffer." The happy ending literally made me want to throw up. Given how phony the love story was it was like a big F.U. to everyone who actually read the book. Meanwhile, Clay’s girlfriend, Rebecca, dumps him in favor of a corporate lawyer to please her rich family. Clay is deeply disappointed, but he’s too distracted by the complexities of the case to dwell on it. He focuses his energy on Tequila’s case—however, soon, he’s asked to resign as public defender, because it’s obvious he now knows too much. Clay decides to open his own law firm specializing in civil damages claims, or torts. He thinks this will impress Rebecca and allow him to sue the pharmaceutical company for huge sums of damages for his clients. Grisham continues to impress with his daring, venturing out of legal thrillers entirely for A Painted House

Clay felt a little bad about abandoning his principles, but the Porsche and the expensive town house looked good and he had cut some of his colleagues into his good fortune. Ever wondered how those ads promise all that "compensation" because there was some side effect that wasn’t disclosed properly? Or where those lawyers get that research on which pharmaceutical companies? I actually preferred this novel to The Street Lawyer which I also read recently. I didn't like the way that Grisham had focused on charity/benevolent work amongst the homeless almost as a selfish pursuit for the young lawyer to find himself. This novel, however, was different--it is totally secular with no real mention of faith/God or anything similar. Sometimes it is better not to try and mix the spiritual with the secular unless you are going to be accurate and ensure you represent the right principles.