“The King Of Torts” by John Grisham and The Process Server
the king of grievances
This novel focuses on Jarrett Clay Carter II’s struggle as a lowly, underpaid attorney at the Office of the Public Defender (OPD). He dreams of succeeding one day, but rest, so to speak, does not come. Represents clients charged with a criminal offense but unable to afford legal services.
He reluctantly takes on the case of Tequila Watson, a man accused of a random street murder. Unbeknownst to Clay Carter at the time, the case would catapult him into the greatest opportunity he could ever imagine. A pharmaceutical conspiracy was brewing and Tequila Watson is just one of the human guinea pigs for the “Tarvan” drug. The drug supposedly helps drug addicts recover, but it has a major flaw, in 10% of its patients, the drug leads to random violent murders. To keep everything a secret, the drug manufacturer hires Clay Carter, with the help of Max Pace. Clay Carter, who resigned as Tequila Watson’s attorney, left his job at the Public Defender’s Office, took on some of his trusted colleagues at OPD, and established his own law firm. Clay Carter now became the attorney for the mysterious pharmaceutical company. They identified the victims of the Tarvan-induced “random killings” and paid the victim’s heirs with large settlements.
Clay Carter soon took up the case for another drug, “Dyloft,” a powerful anti-inflammatory drug used by people with acute arthritis. However, as effective as it is in curbing pain, it causes tumors in the bladder. This case prompted him to start a new career at Mass Tort Law. He started collecting millions of dollars in fees. His meteoric rise to fame and fortune earned him the title of the new King of Tort.
The rise and fall of fame and the process server
Surprise is an element that Clay Carter relied on heavily in presenting the Dyloft case. Simultaneously with its presentation in court, a process server delivered a copy of the complaint to the defendant company, Ackerman Labs. In these types of cases where the time element is part of the strategy, a competent, effective and reliable process server He is the best person to have on the team.
Like every comet with its meteoric rise to stardom and spectacular atmospheric display, it is fleeting. And at some point it will eventually fall somewhere. Clay Carter, in the short span of a few months, had acquired a luxurious home in a prominent part of town, a villa somewhere in the French Isles, a black Porsche Carrera sports car, a Gulfstream private jet, a yacht, hundreds of million in fees.
In a series of misguided decisions, Clay Carter had been subjected to a massive malpractice lawsuit. He resolved the thousands of massively incorrect Dyloft cases he had with Ackerman Labs quickly at a small fee per client. Although he received millions of dollars in fees, individual clients received a paltry sum. Since all of this was done in record time, he was unable to thoroughly assess the effects of the drug on each and every client.
With all of Clay Carter’s resources, there is a protective bubble layer around him. With a jet and yacht close at hand, you’re considered a flight risk. With this in mind, the process server who served Clay Carter with his career-ending malpractice lawsuit was able to penetrate security and schedule a visit for him to serve him personally.
It’s a bit ironic, if not appropriate, that in this novel, the unrecognized constant is a process server that had done its job well.