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EDITORIAL: Lawyers not content with 'legal bribery' 

In a separate case, another well-known trial lawyer, Paul Minor, is sitting in a federal prison after being convicted last year of bribing two state judges on the Coast. The judges, accused of rendering verdicts favorable to Minor's clients in return for financial favors from the attorney, are also serving prison sentences.

The bribery scandals have not only given a black eye to the plaintiffs' bar in Mississippi, but they are bringing collateral damage to current and former state officials who have been closely affiliated with the accused.

Former U.S. Sen. Trent Lott resigned from office a couple of days prior to the indictment of his brother-in-law, Scruggs. . . .

The question out there is how far and deep will this corruption investigation go. The Scruggs-related bribery charges have been over squabbles between attorneys about the divvying up of legal fees following settlements in mass lawsuits involving asbestos, tobacco and Hurricane Katrina. Although this attorney infighting involved about $40 million, that's a pittance compared to the money - better than a billion dollars - that these massive litigation cases have been pouring into the bank accounts of Scruggs and his associates. If trial attorneys resorted to bribery over the “small stuff,” were they also so inclined in the original tort cases that generated the huge payoffs?

That answer is yet to come.

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