Tobacco.org

• Top tobacco trial lawyer focus of probe 

Tobacco lawsuits made Mississippi lawyer Dickie Scruggs so rich and famous that Hollywood made a movie that featured him, "The Insider." But now federal investigators are looking into whether Scruggs and Paul Minor, another high-profile Mississippi trial lawyer, have influenced the state's judicial system through loans to judges.

Leaks about the probe, which directly or indirectly touches some of the state's most powerful people, have caused a stir from Casino Row and the beachfront antebellum compounds of Biloxi to the governor's mansion in Jackson.

The investigation comes as the Mississippi Legislature is locked in a bitter battle over reforming the state's judicial system, long ruled, many say, by a fraternity of trial lawyer graduates of the Ole Miss' school of law. Similar "tort reform" battles are being waged across the nation, and Congress is expected to enter the fray in earnest soon.

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