Time to lawyer up

This week I attended an open house event at ESAB Welding & Cutting Products, Florence, S.C.. I got to see some wonderful welding innovations—many of which you will see in upcoming issues of The FABRICATOR and Practical Welding Today—and had the opportunity to chat with the company’s leading technical experts. I learned that most of the technical advancements taking place in the welding field are aimed at helping shops get more efficiency out of the less-experienced welders who will be replacing the retiring baby boomers.

A dinner conversation, however, really stuck in my mind. Brendan Colgan, president and CEO, ESAB North America, asked his table guests if we had ever heard of Dickie Scruggs. We don’t live in the welding world day in and day out like our ESAB hosts, so no one recognized the name. It’s amazing because he is one of the most recognizable trial attorneys the U.S. court system has seen in decades.

Richard F. “Dickie” Scruggs is the attorney that formed an alliance with Mississippi State Attorney General Mike Moore in 1994 to take on the major tobacco companies. The two figured that because cigarettes made people sick and, as a result, created a huge financial burden for state governments that had to cover these smokers’ medical expenses, the cigarette-makers should pay up. Seeing the writing on the wall, the cigarette companies worked with the attorneys to come to a settlement, and in November 1998 all the parties agreed upon a sum—$206 billion for 46 states and territories and an additional $40 billion for Florida, Mississippi, Minnesota, and Texas, which were in the midst of preparing for trials.

It’s estimated that Scruggs’ law firm will earn about $800 million as the settlement is paid out over the next 25 years.

Scruggs was most recently in the news because he is in the middle of a federal judicial bribery case. He faces 15 years in prison and is awaiting sentencing. For an in-depth look at his downfall, check this out.

Colgan mentioned the attorney’s name because Scrugg’s Oxford, Miss.-based law firm has targeted the welding industry in recent years, claiming companies did not do enough to warn welders of the potential hazards linked to breathing welding fumes. Instead of settling, welding companies coordinated their defenses and went to court. In the ensuing years, 23 cases have been tried, and the welding companies have won 20. Scruggs’ firm represented two plaintiffs who won their cases, but the cases are being appealed.

Scruggs may be behind bars, but the work of his law firm will continue. But will it continue to hound the welding industry? Financial analysts don’t think so, and that may bode well for the welding industry. They now can focus more fully on their markets, not the courts.

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