[a review of] Cornered: Big Tobacco at the Bar of Justice by Peter Pringle 352 pages, $27.50 (hardcover) published by Henry Holt

In parts of the country where labor unions are weak, especially the Deep South, the organized left consists mainly of personal-injury lawyers. They obtain, in a few dramatic cases, the economic redistribution that is out of reach by legislation. The leading personal-injury lawyers are rich, confident, aggressive people who are big political contributors and therefore are in close consultation with Democratic politicians. They try wholeheartedly to influence the direction of government and often succeed. The form of the tobacco-control legislation now before Congress makes sense only if the bill is understood as a product of the power of trial lawyers.

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