Customer Reviews

Civil Warriors: The Legal Siege on the Tobacco Industry

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Civil Warriors reads like a Grisham legal thriller, but it's non-fiction. That makes it much more important than any novelist's fantasies. The lead character may be sympathetic to some, not to others, but there's no question he's an amazing character. However, readers who are fixated on Ron Motley's story, and the greediness of some big-time trial lawyers, miss the other interesting layers of Mr. Zegart's book. The second lead character, for instance, offers a dramatic, not to mention refreshing contrast to Motley. The story of Cliff Douglas is like that of Morris Dees. He takes on big tobacco with little in the way of resources and at huge personal risk, but succeeds in driving them up the wall, and costing them billions, by quietly locating industry whistleblowers and exposing the truth in explosive front page news stories. The tales told of the whistleblowers themselves, including the mysterious "Deep Cough," Victor DeNoble and others are nothing short of amazing. The book grippingly describes their acts of bravery and conscience. I was invigorated and inspired by their stories, and I think others will be too.

This is one of the best books on a legal subject that I've read in many years. Readers who are looking for a squeaky clean hero in Ron Motley miss the point - - or are too mentally numb to get it. Zegart is refreshingly open about the faults of Motley, his merry band of plaintiff's lawyers and the global settlement they hammered out with the industry. The book's brilliance lies in the way gadfly Cliff Douglas is used as a foil to highlight everything that's wrong with Motley's big lawsuit approach. And Zegart has made the tale of a bunch of lawyers going after the cigarette industry truly fun, filled it with unusual and memorable characters, both major and minor, and plenty of drama - - no mean feat. The book will stay with you long after you've finished it.

Readers will find this easy-to-read book more or less useful depending on the viewpoints and preparation they bring to it. I recommend it to everyone as a quick read that will fuel whatever side of the arguments the reader favors.

The author focuses on litigators who tried to hold tobacco companies responsible for some of the harms from which the companies [and governments] have profited. Many of those litigators were flush with money derived from suits over asbestos or other faulty products, so this book features the swashbuckling lawyering familiar from the plaintiffs' attorney in A CIVIL ACTION. If the reader stereotypes lawyers as greedy parasites, that reader will find ample examples in this book. On the other hand, readers open to the idea that little folks sometimes get something resembling justice through lawsuits or not at all may regard the trial lawyers as the last hope for many underdogs -- not perfect by any means, but better than no champions at all.

Some litigators were motivated by other values than money or in addition to money, so the reader whose mind has not been poisoned against all lawyers will find attorneys acting on principles or ideals.

Readers unaware of the secrets and misbehavior of the tobacco companies should probably read about those companies in greater detail elsewhere, but this book provides a deft summary of intimidation, perjury, junk science, public relations, and other corporate viciousness.

Readers who emphasize that Big Tobacco deals a legal drug that users are free to reject will find little sympathy for that view in this book, but they will find ample evidence of the misbehavior of critics of Big Tobacco.

Readers who believe that plaintiffs file frivolous suits to shake down moneyed defendants every day will learn just how hard it is to get any money from economic powers.

Readers who suspect that economic clout translates to legal and litigational prowess will find ways in which that is both true and false. Such readers will learn that black and white views do not adequately convey the complexity of economic powers.

It is true that one ends this book without a tidy ending to this ongoing struggle. Even that, however, is an important lesson about tobacco politics.

This is a great book on many levels. It offers tremendous insight not only into the past misconduct of tobacco but also the legal framework -- be it plaintiffs' lawyers or AGs -- that sought to take big tobacco down (the legal history is particularly great). The insider's view of one of the foremost plaintiffs' lawyers in the country is particularly worthwhile: the author paints a very compelling figure who one does not know whether to worship or pity. Nevertheless, the book is probably 50-75 pages too long as it tends to drone on after the main events have already concluded. A postscript detailing the current state of tobacco regulation and litigation would also be worthwhile. That said, the book is definitely worth a read.

I found this book nearly as engaging as A Civil Action. Smart, inspiring, very readable, and unabashedly sympathetic to the anti-tobacco crusaders, this book was a real pleasant surprise.

If you want entertaining summer reading that will also give you the lowdown on the biggest corporate caper in the history of the United States, Civil Warriors: The Legal Siege on the Tobacco Industry is your book. Unlike other tomes written about the legal war against tobacco, all of which were produced prematurely while the tale was unfolding, this new work by investigative reporter Dan Zegart offers the whole gory picture, right up to its bitter-sweet finale. And the author does it with real style. Rarely have there been more colorful protagonists, including a gazillionaire half-crazed trial lawyer and a paradoxically angelic self-styled "guerrilla warrior." And you don't want to miss the freaked out whistleblowers and industry greed heads. The movie "The Insider" captured only a small slice of the incredible story told here. It will keep you glued to your beach chair while the kids are off frolicking in the water.

I once had the opportunity to meet Dan Zegart. Ironically enough, he chain-smoked and let ashes fall over my carpet, my floor, my desk, and made little effort to use an ashtray. In person, Zegart is brilliant. His mind runs something like a pinball ricocheting off of surfaces at wild angles, racking up points and entertaining all who watch. After I met him, a professional musician friend told me he is also one of the best drummers they had ever heard. You get glimpses of a wild mind in this book -- a worthwhile read but hopefully just the first in what should be a body of great work. I am more interested in what Zegart writes or produces next. Here's a bold prediction -- Zegart could be a major voice in social analysis.

Civil Warriors was a facinating look both inside the legal strategy behind the tobacco lititgation but also the personal lives of some of the major players. Zeigart's behind-the-scenes access was invaluable to shedding light on these cases. But more importantly, it is a good read. It reminds me of the book Civil Action - great information told in a great story.

This book was OK, but not great. I think a better book on the topic is "Up In Smoke: From Legislation To Litigation In Tobacco Politics" by Martha A. Derthick. I recommend that book instead of this one. They both tell pretty much the same story.

Pretention thy name is Motley. For the cost of this book, you could just as well throw away your money buying cigarettes as reading this swill. The protagnonist is a self-obsessed mastadon who is the culmination of the decline and fall of the legal profession. To read his story is to see why we can be sure that Clarence Darrow is dead. In between Motley's routinely useless pontifications on the law and his annoying knack for self-promotion (which the author feeds with gusto) lies the dismal bones of a book whose author has lost all perspective. If this book were about Hitler, it would read like a fawning review of the deep thoughts of John Paul II. Both the author and the star of the book have wasted the time they spent fighting a war that Morris Dees would have won in a southern minute. Dees would have spent the profits bettering society and not fueling his yacht. At the end of the day, read something else. We don't want to encourage this type of hero worship. As a final note, I liked the book jacket. But I am sure that the author didn't write it. Spend your time and money on A Civil Action. The hero of that book is poor, but worthy of our respect. That he lost is not the point; Motley may have won, but only in his mind.