King of Tortes

Drive down the road, turn on your television, or open a magazine, and you will likely see an advertisement that asks the question:   “Have you taken this drug?   There have been recent discoveries that this drug might be harmful to your health.   If you or one of your family members has taken it, then call this 1-800 number.”   We’ve all seen them; we are constantly exposed to this type of advertising, and yet society has become conditioned to it.   In bestselling author and lawyer John Grisham’s legal thriller The King of Torts (2003), all is revealed about the scandalous behavior of tort lawyers and big business that our culture has readily adopted.
    John Grisham, who was born in Arkansas, schooled in Mississippi, an attorney, and a bestselling author writes compelling books on current law practices.   Grisham got his start in writing in 1989 when he wrote his first bestseller.   The title was A Time to Kill, a story about a 12 year old girl who was raped.   He says that he got the idea from a conversation he heard outside of a courtroom.   From there he started to imagine that since the girl had been raped then her father would take revengeful action to find her rapist.   The Firm (1991) and The Pelican Brief (1992) quickly became the springboard to launch his writing career to the award-winning, bestseller author that he is today (Doubleday, 1995-2011).   All of Grisham’s books have been in some way about corruption in law practice, except for Skipping Christmas (2001) and A Painted House (2001).   Many of his books have been made in to popular movies.  
    In all of Grisham’s books, he describes two common stereotypes that have plagued the legal profession (Kanahara, 2006).   One type is the money hungry, blood sucking, donned in expensive attire lawyer that is only in it for his/her financial gain.   The other type is the young, idealistic, ambitious type who only wants to work for the betterment of society.   Cultural beliefs, practices and patterns of the...