Legal News

John Grisham & Judicial Elections

By Peter Lattman

John Grisham’s “The Appeal,” his first legal thriller in three years, has gotten solid reviews — here, here and here. Apropos of last week’s news about the West Virginia Supreme Court and this morning’s post about Louisiana’s, it’s a tale of buying justice — specifically, an evil corporation buying a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The story plays out with a chemical company found guilty of dumping toxic waste and liable for the deaths of scores of people in a fictional Mississippi town. The owner of the company tries to get out of paying a $41 million jury verdict by spending millions to help elect a Mississippi Supreme Court justice to influence the appeal.

“There’s a lot of truth in this story,” Grisham writes in an author’s note. “As long as private money is allowed in judicial elections we will see competing interests fight for seats on the bench.” This morning on the Today show, Grisham told Matt Lauer, “Electing judges is a bad idea.” His solution? “You start with a nonpartisan commission, you screen the judges, you get good people, you get them appointed. If they serve a number of years, let them run maybe for an election with no private money involved in the election. Keep the private money out. But you’ve got to clean it up.”

Little did the Law Blog know about Grisham’s latest book back in December when we interviewed him about the judicial bribery charges against his fellow Mississippian and friend “Dickie” Scruggs. “My initial reaction was one of surprise,” he told us. “When you know Dickie and how successful he has been you could not believe he would be involved in such a boneheaded bribery scam that is not in the least bit sophisticated. I don’t believe it. I hope it’s all proven to be wrong.”

Law Blog readers: This renown author is clearly trying to influence the legal system. What impact has he had on it through his books? For better, for worse? Please share your views.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 29, 2008 (boomark / email).