The final whistle for Scruggs

Richard 'Dickie' Scruggs, the King of Torts and the ultimate ambulance-chasing lawyer, is going to jail. The "hoorays" are echoing through the corridors of Corporate America.

Scruggs is the most famous of the lawyers who sue companies for the damage they do to their customers. His first multi-million dollar fortune came from asbestos manufacturers who killed the shipyard workers who handled their product.

But his legendary hit came against Big Tobacco in the 1990s. He scored $250bn, not for smokers responsible for their own demise, but for health authorities who had picked up the medical bills. His share of the 'contingency fees'? A billion. For a bonus he was portrayed in the heroic lawyer's role in The Insider, the 1999 movie about the case (pictured).

Scruggs, 61, is due to be sentenced to an expected five years in jail next month. His crime was bribing a judge. So that’s how they do it. He could have got 75 years if he hadn't pleaded guilty in a plea bargain. He has already sold his private jet.

Supporters in the diehard anti-smoking lobby still consider Scruggs a champion of the little guy, a fallen hero in the Shakespearean mould. "He's a very good man who made a mistake he'll pay for for the rest of his life," says former Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore, who aided Scruggs against Big Tobacco.

This is a rare view. To many of his colleagues as well as empty-pocketed titans of industry, Scruggs has long been seen as a ruthless, rule-bending, preening exemplar of greed and self-interest.

He wins by priming a whistle-blower to find dirt on his target - the 'insider' of the movie - and then making a flanking move such as suing on behalf of the state medical authorities rather than that little guy. He builds the case with compromising evidence and political support until the companies settle out of court. In that lies his genius.

Scruggs was born in Brookhaven, Mississippi and became a Top Gun fighter pilot in the Navy before taking up law. He moved to a mansion in Oxford, seat of Ole Miss University, and set himself up as local grandee. He has his suits hand-tailored and donated enough to Ole Miss to have a building named for him. His brother-in-law is Trent Lott, former Republican Senator.

He had it made. But then Hurricane Katrina blew down his beach house and Scruggs spotted an opportunity. He advertised for householders unhappy with their insurance pay-outs and put two insurance company whistle-blowers on the payroll at salaries of $100,000 a year. He scored another $26m in legal fees.

The rub is that bribing the judge had nothing to do with awards to his plaintiffs. Scruggs wanted to win a dispute over divvying-up the fees with other lawyers, who were fighting like sharks after a kill.

Judge Lackey called the cops at the first opportunity and the FBI set up the 'sting' which caught Scruggs. Was this orchestrated in revenge, like the prostitution scandal that brought down Wall Street’s tormentor, Eliot Spitzer? ·