Challenge 7: Rainmaker

Title: Rainmaker
Author: John Grishman
419 pages 
Date published: September 2005
Book description:  A young man barely out of law school who finds himself taking on one of the most powerful, corrupt, and ruthless companies in America -- and exposing a complex, multibillion-dollar insurance scam. In hs final semester of law school Rudy Baylor is required to provide free legal advice to a group of senior citizens, and it is there that he meets his first "clients," Dot and Buddy Black. Their son, Donny Ray, is dying of leukemia, and their insurance company has flatly refused to pay for his medical treatments. While Rudy is at first skeptical, he soon realizes that the Blacks really have been shockingly mistreated by the huge company, and that he just may have stumbled upon one of the largest insurance frauds anyone's ever seen -- and one of the most lucrative and important cases in the history of civil litigation. The problem is, Rudy's flat broke, has no job, hasn't even passed the bar, and is about to go head-to-head with one of the best defense attorneys -- and powerful industries -- in America.

This challenge is pretty simple, we only have to pick a not so recent book, a book published before 2017, the one I picked was first published in 2005 therefore it meets the requirement just fine. 

To be honest I didn't even read the book description I simply picked a book by John  Grishman because I mostly really enjoy his books. So let's dive into it. WARNING: It will contain spoilers. This story seems like it will have a lot of interesting facts given throughout the whole thing and after doing a very detailed babble on the previous book I read The retribution of Mara Dyer I found that it gives me a bigger sense of accomplishment to just retell the whole thing. I am bad at telling a story be it from a tv show, movie or book. But I will keep trying, practices makes perfect aferall.

Our protagonist is a third year law student Rudy Bayor. He initially decided to become a lawyer simply bacuse his father desdpises them; totally rational right? He's very close to graduation and he already has a strong dislike for his future. His last semester he decided to take the easy classes among them is the Legal Problems of the Elderly. In it the students are required to visit a place called Cypress Gardens where the soon to be lawyers give free legal advice to senior people of the community. 
Rudy's first client is a nice old lady called Colleen Janiece Barrow Birdsong. She wants him to handle a will. He was extremely nervous and worried but with the he relaxes quiet a bit. Every student is required to take a full course on Wills during law school so he feels more confident. Wills are after all fairly simple documents and can be prepared by the greenest of lawyers. Oh surprise he gets when he takes a look at it and finds out that the extremely unremarkable old lady is worth at least 20 millions. Suddenly there are major issues with the will. First and foremost it is not as thick as it should be. Birdie was rich and rich people did not have thin, simple wills. They had thick, dense wills with trusts and trustees and generation skipping transfers and other such gadgets devised by lawyers from big firms. 
Our little fellow is thinking big about the possibilities of taking on a client such as her, the impact on his career.... He is ataken back.
Birdie explains what she wants, she wants to cut her children and most of her grandkids from the will. She gives him a list of 4 names of the people she wants to keep in it and adds another one; a not family member Bosco another os the fellows from Cypress, each will recaive a million and the rest will go to Reverend Kenneth Chandler and his church. Rudy has two weeks to collect his senses and give her the legal advice she needs. He feels inadequate. Birdie needs more legal advice than his 3 years of studying law can provide even if she doens't understand or want it. 

Rudy's sencond clients are Marvine and Willis Black  but they go by Dot and Buddy. In the introduction of each other Dot manages to describe her husband as an alcoholic imbecile. Buddy still says not a word. They come with a more common claim: their issues are with a health insurance company about a policy. Dot does all the talking, she explains they bought the policy 5 years ago and never missed any payments. The beneficiaries are their twin sons Donny Ray and Ronny Ray They didn't need to use it until the last year when their son Donny was diagnosed with Leukimia. After a while in the hospital the doctors gave the diagnose and adviced a bone marrow transplant. The boys are identical twins and are a perfect match. The insurance policy denied their claim and refused to pay for the transplant. The reasons for denial they give are endless:

1. They  claiming  the leukimia was a preexisting condition to the time they bought the policy which is pointless, the policy was bought four years prior to the diagnose.
2.  Saying Donny is and adult therefore no longer covered, but Dot insists that in policy said nothing about it stop being effective at a certain age.
3. The company even went ahead and sent letters with nothing susbtantial in it, simply to insult the Black, calling them stupid and telling them that they should stop complaining and accept the denial of their petitions for the transplant.

Rudy gives them the same line he fed to Birdie, telling them he will return in two weeks with an advicement letter. It doesn't make sense to him, the reaction of the insurance company and he's almost sure there is a perfect little exclusion somewhere in the policy that the Blacks missed or choose not to see. But it does feel daunting, the Blacks placed the lifde of their son Donny on his hands, they expect him to make calls, threats and force the company to give them money and they expect it to happen fast. 
Rudy retunr to his school to sutdy the cases. He begins with the Black's. He studies everything they gave him, when it was purchsed, the payments, the letters sent to the Black family, everything. He starts with nornal procedure, writing a sumary starting with the date the policy was purchsed and then a chronological list of significant events. Great Benefit, in writing, denied coverage eight times. The eighth was, of course, the Stupid Letter. 

Not that he's self centered or anything but when Rudy wa sdoing the preliminar research for his "clients" he received some wonderful news. The firm he was about to start working for after graduation, the one with crappy pay... Well they were gone, the firm had merged with one of the biggest firms in town. The associates were not needed. He was fired before he even begun. On a fit of rage and stupidity mainly he trashes their office before he runs out and spends his few bucks on beer to get drunk; again he isn't the smartest of the bunch now is he?  To top it off he gets sued from Texaco a creditor he owes too much to and evicted from his apartment. Oh the joys of life. 
So after the days fiasco he gets more good news, the Black have indeed been screwed over and they sould and should sue. The professor he asks advice from tells him to write a report to the professor of Geezer law, write a two page letter to reference the Black to a real hot shot lawyer, make a few phone calls in their behalf and move on. The case looks good the chances of winning not so much, but it can't be done nothing about. 
So game change, now the third year student Rudyunemployed and with no prospects of a job any time soon takes a dfferent approach. He will take a serious look over the will Birdie wants and makes a proposal to the Blacks. Nohing fancy, sue Great Benefit, their insurance company free of charge on Rudy's part. He will get a third of what they get from them only after the transpat is paid of course. He's selling his point to Dot and trying very hard. He only has to pass the bar exam become a real lawyer allowed to practice and beat a big insurance company, a piece of cake really. 
Rudy doesn't lie exactly but his plan was to take the Black vs Great Benefit and use it as leverage to get hired in a big shot firm. The case is very promising. He takes his shot and gets accepted as a paralegal, a job secured for 12 months with possibilities of being hired as a lawyer when the time period is up. He will work for Mr. Lake a big shot lawyer who became a legend for starting from zero and reaching the sky.
So after he gets the Blacks to sign the legal contract with Lake, well he gets sacked and tossed out in the street. He was too trusting and after they got what they wanted kicked him out. Rudy has a lot of bad luck, he gets cherry on top. The night after he gets the sack, an arson is commited in the building he was just fired from and a person died, now he's the prime suspet of that crime as well.... oh goodies of his life XD
He gets his lucky break though Bruiser a lawyer Rudy wanted nothing to do with him, gives him a shot. His first order of business is to get the Black case back from Lake. They screwed him simply to get it, he's going to screw them back.
Things aren't always what young people imagined, practicing law is way different from what Rusy envisioned while in Law school, he gets clients by not savary ways, he learns law from a man he alsways intended to avoid and is studying real hard and steady for the bar exam, real adult life almost always ends up being much more complicated and complex than what you imagine while still in collage. Rudy learns much like everyone in real life do, that you sometmes end up very far from where you planned. 
He starts working cases and getting not the way he wanted. The fights with other lawyers, the rumors of getting sacked again, he has very bad luck really. The newest issue, his new boss Bruiser getting arrested and probably his office getting stopped, bye-bye Bruiser, bye-bye his new job. This guy either he's getting his leg pulled because someone got interested in him and wants to steal Rudy away from the firm, they want to trick him into leaving a good job for either jalousy or whatever or he's really got bad luck and his boss is about to be out of bussiness. 
Things start to go south but it's really hard to tell if it's simple paranoia or if its really a huge legal issue. It isn't until the day of the Black  hearing that Rudy starts to believe something seriously off about his new employer. Bruiser doens't show up for the hearing. Rudy shows up in court and tries to continue the motion but the laywer from the defense wants nothing with it arguing that Rudy has not even got a license yet. 

The Juge wants no petty arguments, the motion will proceed, it is the defendants motion to dismiss the charges afterall. It should be over with quickly. Rudy will just begin his first ever real case in court and it is against one of the biggest insurance companies who are represented by the largest firm of town. Yes, it will finally get interesting.

Note: It has had a slower development than I expected because the story has been focusing more on Rudy's personal life and normal everyday struggles than law realted issues and fights in court; therefore I felt as if it was stalling. But I still appreciate the details so far, it gives a more realistic touch to the storyline and realism is one of my favorite things in books.

Now Rudy is faced with his first predicament teh judge wants to dismiss the motion, he urges Rudy to settle with the defendants and get this over with. The offer is $75,000.00 only valid the next 24 hours of course. The family gets the money and no one waste time in court. The lawyer is very eager to offer the settlement, Rudy suspects it's because they know they have been caught red handded. The settlement came only because Rudy was the acting lawyer and not Bruiser, they obviously think they can make a greenie fold. Deck, his advisor votes for taking the money, it is too late to save Donny Ray's life but the money could come handy for Dot and Buddy.
What is Rudy going to do? Persue justice when it's more than obvious the judge really doesn't care about the right and wrong or allow a big corporation get away from screwing over people? Tough choice.
The ax comes down, the feds do in fact raid and seal their offices; Bruiser their boss is no where to be found and Prince the man who got Rudy hired with Bruiser has also vanished. Rudy most now become the sole representant of the Blacks, it's official Bruiser is not going to be offering any more counsil or is available for consultation: The Black cas is all his. 
The Blacks want advice, what to do? They rely and trust on Rudy's call: He is after all the lawyer. Rudy doesn't want to settle he wants to expose the people for what they really are- It really doens't matter he's in bancrupcy and he is now self employed. Justice is more omportant than his economic salvation. The call is Donny Ray's, Dot is willing to do whatever her son wants even if she yearns for blood. 
Another development. The judge presiding the Black case dies of natural causes, he was not too old but suffered from high blood pressure issues. The case was not yet dismissed they still have a shot. The money is turned down and a war begins. 

I so love the part about the court and law discussions. Maybe I did want to be a lawyer in another life XD

Rudy gets blessed with a new Judge, one who actually cares and seems to be partial now to their side rather than the big company. It is a hit of good luck. The trial begins, but Doony Ray's health is in decline, he rarely leaves the house and has no possibility of going to the court house to testify. Time is running out.
Rudy starts to get some luck with other cases and has a breather finantially, but he is just beginning. 
The boys defending Great Benefit are stalling. They can't find enough excuses to move things back, all six of them are working around the clock to postpone the hearings and trials. It is annoying and even if it's fiction I can't help but feel frustrated on Donny Ray's behalf. What follows the trial is a nice ass whipping for the star big shot lawyer (yes those are not really good adjectives to decribe anyone by but it gets my point across). Rudy the newbie is kicking ass!! It is described as one of the best bad faith trials in the country. (It is my humble opinion and I only speak from imaginative experience, for I hvae no real knowledge of actual courtroom fights, NONE!).
It gets spicy how sidestepping the problems Great Benefit tries to give Rudy he still gets a whole lot of stuff to expose about the company, the affairs the members of said company had and oh boy, dirty laundry is always humurous. 
We get the ending we were expecting but the important part was seeing Rudy and his team get there. In addition we get a surprising closure on another issue plaguing Rudy's personal life and a very unique start of a possible future relationship, just when you think you had everything figured out.

It was very good, I give it a 4 out of 5 stars. I generally like John Grishman's books, and I am not dissapointed.