The Judgment (Grisham)

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The verdict (original title: The Runaway Jury ) is a novel by the American author John Grisham from 1996. The novel was filmed in 2003 by the director Gary Fleder and also published under the title The verdict . However, the tobacco industry was replaced by the arms industry, resulting in a trial against an arms company in the film.

action

In Biloxi , a small town in the state of Mississippi , a process is taking place that is causing a worldwide stir. The widow of a smoker who died of lung cancer has sued a tobacco company for damages. The judge has the jury sealed off from the outside world, as they feel they are constantly being monitored and threatened.

It turns out that the tobacco companies have set up a fund with the help of which they intend to manipulate the process through the jury in their favor. Nicholas Easter, one of the jurors, tries, with the help of his outside friend, to cheat the tobacco industry out of the money from this fund by promising the tobacco industry a favorable verdict. Nicholas succeeds in gradually removing some of the jury members he dislikes from the jury and replacing them with substitute jurors who he likes.

After all, the deal is perfect and the man who leads the jury manipulations on behalf of the tobacco industry pays the requested money. Nicholas Easter then successfully convinced the jury to condemn the tobacco company to pay high damages because his girlfriend's parents had also died of lung cancer.

interpretation

The plaintiff in the present case is trying to set a precedent that will allow subsequent class action lawsuits by other nicotine victims to seek damages in court or out of court. The defense of the defendant tobacco companies is trying to prevent this with all legal and illegal means. This topic was also raised in Grisham's book The Judge . There, as in Grisham's book The Guilt, it was about class actions in the pharmaceutical sector. In the judgment it continues to be about the vulnerability of the American legal system against manipulation by a corrupt member of the jury, while the judge takes a judge money from the winning party. While this judge is not corrupt, he was specifically chosen by the plaintiff's attorney for the case. Ultimately, both books are about manipulating the legal system in general.

literature