Haley Barbour Comments on the Judicial Bribery Scandal
Point of Law has this post about Governor Barbour speaking about the judicial bribery scandal in Mississippi. The original question appeared to be about tort reform, but Barbour worked in the scandal:
BARBOUR: I don't think it was related to the tort reform, but as you know, some of the more prominent plaintiffs' lawyers in my state got into trouble. ...I hate it. It's bad for the court system, it's bad for everybody. One of the things I really believe is, the public has to think the legal system is on the up and up. I mean, that's just really, really important.
Once in my career, I was the deputy chairman of the International Democrat Union, which despite its name - Democrat and Union - is the organization of conservative parties of the world that President Reagan started with Mrs. Thatcher and Chancellor Kohl. And I was struck by how much people in other parts of the world realized the importance of the rule of law in America. And it is not that way everywhere. There are advanced countries that are very prosperous that don't have nearly the confidence, faith and commitment to the rule of law that we do.
And for us, an advantage for us is the little guy generally believes that the court system is on the up and up.
All of sudden we get judges getting convicted of taking bribes and lawyers, good lawyers - they may have been plaintiffs' lawyers and they may be on the other side from me, and politically and everything else - but they're good lawyers. To me it's sad, 'cause it's bad for what we all ultimately want in America, and we do want the rule of law, and we want a system that let's us progress.
But the tort reform battle and the actual enactment of tort reform I don't think had any role in that. It was other stuff. Most of the litigation had actually started before.MEESE: I understand that. I have always felt that, to some extent at least, the tremendous amount of money that came to be involved, and the way that the trial lawyers were holding their seminars and dealing themselves, led to the arrogance that led to people like Dickie Scruggs and Bill Lerach to have the bribes and so on...that the money in effect was so great for these trial lawyers that it almost corrupted the system and that's what led to some of these things that we've talked about.
BARBOUR: It's maybe a monetary takeoff on "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
I don't always agree with Barbour, but he is dead on with his comments that it is important that the public believe in the integrity of the judicial system. The same applies for the bar. As a litigator, I realize that my client will not always win. But it is imperative that we be able to trust the process. Of course, according to DOJ there is no public interest in the judicial bribery scandal.
