Dickie Scruggs was sitting on top of the world. Plaintiffs' attorneys had coaxed nearly $15.5 billion in reimbursed fees from Big Tobacco. His firm's share was nearly $1 billion. And he wasn't afraid to spend it. "Immediately, we went through a period of buying faster planes, bigger boats and nicer cars," he later ruminated. "The obscene amounts of money being handed out certainly damaged our cause before Congress and in the public." Prosecutors echoed this view. "The pursuit of perfection became the enemy of the good. We should have accepted less," said Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller. Now they tell us.

Scruggs' career never again would achieve the same heights. It was not for want of trying. In 2000, he led class-action lawsuits in four states and Puerto Rico against Novartis, maker of the drug Ritalin, plus the American Psychiatric Association and the nonprofit Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD). Scruggs alleged that Ritalin was a "huge risk," "grossly over-prescribed" and designed to treat a nonexistent disorder. The gambit didn't pan out. In all five jurisdictions, the court dismissed the suit before trial or the plaintiffs dropped the suit.

Hurricane Katrina would prove to be his downfall. The August 2005 storm and resulting floods caused an estimated $81.2 billion in property damage. A few months later, Scruggs formed the Scruggs Katrina Group (SKG), consisting of plaintiffs' lawyers representing Gulf Coast policy holders whose claims had been denied by major insurance companies. This case was personal as well as business. Pascagoula beach homes belonging to Scruggs and brother-in-law Senator Lott were among properties demolished.

The plaintiffs reached an $80 million settlement with State Farm, producing $26.5 million in legal fees for SKG. Unfortunately for Scruggs, a rival litigator, Jones, Funderberg, Sessums, Peterson & Lee, thought it was getting short-changed. The firm's lead partner, John Griffin Jones, sued to get some of that money.

Dickie Scruggs wasn't about to yield. In March 2007 he and four persons -- all future defendants -- paid Judge Henry Lackey a visit to make him an offer: Rule in our favor and we'll make you richer. Lackey, not wanting to bring legal troubles upon himself, quickly reported the incident to the FBI. That in turn led to an undercover sting operation. Timothy Balducci, a New Albany, Miss. lawyer, along with former Mississippi State Auditor Steven Patterson, decided to cop a plea and work with the feds. During September 27-November 1, 2007, Balducci made three cash payments to Judge Lackey totaling $50,000. "We paid for this ruling; let's be sure it says what we want it to say," Balducci told Zach Scruggs and Sid Backstrom.

The indictments came down not long after. Instantly, Dickie Scruggs became radioactive to his friends atop the Democratic Party food chain. Senator Hillary Clinton cancelled a scheduled December 15 presidential campaign fundraiser at his home.

Scruggs insisted he'd been railroaded. His lawyer, John Keker, got that message out to the media. "I'll say this, [the judge] sure as hell didn't get bribed by Dick Scruggs or anyone else in his law firm," the San Francisco-based Keker told the Wall Street Journal. He repeated the story to the newspaper this month, accusing prosecutors of concocting a "manufactured crime." The remark ran on March 14, the very day Dickie Scruggs entered his guilty plea -- classic bad timing.

Scruggs' career, for all intents and purposes, is over. He's looking at a five-year prison term and disbarment. But his fall may reveal more about systemic than personal failings. Over the last several decades, the plaintiffs' bar has succeeded in expanding definitions of liability beyond what many people would consider reasonable. The lawsuit remains a necessary option, but in cynically opportunistic hands it has become a tool for fleecing deep pockets. At least some members of the profession, including those sitting on the bench, are saying "no." It's the next best thing to tort reform.