Civil Warriors

Not just one civil action, but hundreds--enough to spark a "war in the civil justice system"--provide the backdrop for this triumph of investigative journalism and narrative courtroom non-fiction. By taking us behind the scenes and into the courtroom with Ron Motley--one of the most successful civil trial lawyers in the US - and to the front lines of the legal crusade against big tobacco, Dan Zegart brings to vivid life the dramatic stories behind the headlines of one man's tireless campaign to challenge a foe long believed to be unbeatable. Expanding on his attention-getting pieces in The Nation, Zegart paints a frightening picture of the most cold-blooded legal offensives that Big Tobacco could buy, the human toll on anyone who got in its way, and the rise of the relentless, inspired strategy that finally pierced the industry's impenetrable armour. At its heart is the unforgettable Ron Motley, the brilliant, high-living attorney who had already brought the asbestos business to its knees and now risks everything to punish the industry that killed his emphysematic mother. Crossing his path at key points is the tale's secondary lead, the activist Cliff Douglass, whose passion takes him deep into a world where ideals go into the shredder with industry secrets. Add in the huge supporting cast - from the nicotine researchers who hang a giant syringe-riddled stuffed rat from the ceiling of their secret lab, to the smalltown judge who smokes at the bench during a tobacco-damage trial, to assorted whistle-blowers who fear for their lives, journalists who fear for their careers, and countless lawyers who fear their big payday may never arrive - and the result is a feast of humanity. Drawing on hundreds of interviews and over 200,000 pages of documents--information covering over forty years of the tobacco struggle, including internal corporate documents and the first hand stories of plaintiffs, lawyers, jurors and scientists--and leading up through the industry's once-inconceivable multi-hundred-billion dollar defeat, CIVIL WARRIORS is an indispensable chronicle of the American legal system at its best and worst.