Bright Lights, Big Asbestos Verdicts Part of the Reason for 'Jackpot Justice' in Mississippi

subIntense media attention and recent awards have attorneys in the Delta at odds over how to proceed with tort reform, or whether it's needed at allendsub photo-20 Just one month before a Holmes County, Miss., jury awarded five plaintiffs $150 million for their asbestos injuries, attorneys in Mississippi had their heads turned 250 miles in another direction.

Their eyes were fixed on the activity in Jackson County, where the first of several thousand pending asbestos claims was being tried before what has become known of late as an unforgiving Mississippi jury. As far as those watching were concerned, it was …