DISQUS

Guess you haven't sat in the room with health care executives making life or death decisions for consumers/patients and prioritizing profits/cost-cutting/money-making over better meeting the needs of their customers. If you had, you wouldn't care HOW much plaintiff lawyers make. They are vitally necessary as a check and balance against corporate wrong-doing (I'm talking life and death for unsuspecting consumers.) And when health care executives bring home annual bonuses of $60+ million, the corporate penalty for wrong-doing has to be stiff.

How else is the "little guy" going to protect himself from wrongdoings by "big business" if not through plaintiff lawyers willing to give it a go? Too many times in my career I've seen with my own eyes executives on the verge of making a decision that would be downright dangerous (even on life/death matters) for consumers, only to be stopped by the thought of litigation by someone like Dickie Scruggs, if not Dickie himself. I think the fees the plaintiff lawyers earn is commiserate with the pain companies/executives deserve if they put profit over consumer health and truth. Re: Scruggs' indictment. I'm sure with his successes, Dickie Scruggs has made lots of enemies (tobacco, asbestos, insurance execs) over course of his career as well as made countless lawyers on the defense side a wee bit jealous.