The Rainmaker Case

The Rainmaker

This movie revolves around a recent graduate of the University of Memphis Law School, Rudy Baylor. Baylor was not offered a position at a high profile law firm, and is forced to seek out a job working for J. Lyman "Bruiser" Stone. Unfortunately Bruisers practice is predominately built on the practice of "ambulance chasing." Baylor is forced to put his integrity aside and hunt for potential clients at the local hospital. However, he does have a couple of potential clients that he has acquired through a law workshop while he was still in law school.

One of those potential clients is the Black family. Doty Black's son, Donny Ray, was diagnosed with leukemia and the Great Benefits Insurance Company refuses to pay for the procedure that may save his life. Bruiser pairs Baylor with a former insurance company employee named Deck Shifflet to assist him in this insurance bad faith case.

A series of events requires Baylor to head the Black's case against a shark of an attorney named Leo Drummond. Drummond is not really known to be a believer in ethics and will do whatever it takes to win. It appears as though the case is going to be dismissed when Judge Hale suddenly passes away. The case is then assigned to the newly appointed Judge Kippler and it appears as though he is more sympathetic than Hale.

Baylor develops an emotional attachment to the Black family, and shortly after Donny Ray's deposition, he passes away. This results in a change in the type of case that is being tried, and Baylor is now charged with trying a wrongful death suit. Baylor's attachment to the Black family develops within him an even stronger desire to obtain revenge for this family

Baylor overcomes the many unethical (if not illegal) attacks by Drummond and wins the case for the Black family and the jury awards the family 50 million in punitive damages. However, Great Benefits quickly files bankruptcy and the family receives nothing. That does not steal Doty Black's thunder as she never wanted to receive any money. She was just happy that she was able to put the company out of business.

I thought that this movie was extremely relevant to the teachings of this class. The main reason is due to the fact the focus of the movie was on a lawsuit against a big business. The case involved unethical business practices, such as ordering the employees to automatically deny claims. Also, the fact that the company provided tampered manuals as evidence, terminated employees to prevent them from testifying. I was very impressed by the fact that the jury awarded a large punitive damage amount. This goes to show you that willful misconduct should be punished in a manner that will deter future acts.