The legend of Richard Scruggs is by now well-known. His fame took root in the 1990s, when he won settlements for shipyard workers in Pascagoula, Miss., who had been exposed to asbestos. It blossomed in 1998, when the former Navy fighter pilot pressured tobacco companies to agree to a $248 billion settlement. And, in recent months, his story descended into the realm of scandal when the 61-year-old Scruggs, his son David “Zach” Scruggs and three others were indicted in his hometown of Oxford, Miss., for trying to bribe a judge to get a favorable ruling in a fee dispute.
But the legend of Dickie Scruggs, as commonly told, generally omits a key fact. Scruggs’ reputation as a giant killer of the plaintiffs bar is outdated. Even before the indictment his career was in decline [see "High-Wire Act"]. In the 10 years since the tobacco settlement, Scruggs has taken on a series of quixotic cases. These matters were much ballyhooed in the press, but in the end they shared two things: big enemies and bad results. The only major success he’s seen in the last decade hasn’t been for the underdog plaintiffs that he champions, but for a big corporation that he defended in a product liability case.
