Retired lawyer discusses satirical legal novel at Scoville Library

SALISBURY – Retired lawyer and fiction writer Tom Morrisson said he spent decades watching fellow attorneys take themselves too seriously. In retirement, he turned that observation into a series of comic legal novels and discussed the latest with former Lakeville Journal Executive Editor Cynthia Hochswender at the Scoville Memorial Library on Tuesday, June 30.

Morrison told the audience he has often thought that his colleagues take themselves too seriously, a sentiment that has been the basis of his series of comic novels, including the new “Close Encounters with Tort$.”

Hochswender asked Morrison how he got started writing fiction.

Although Morrison only started the “Tort$” series at age 74, he said he attempted to write a spy thriller when he was in the Air Force as a young man.

“I knew nothing about spies or writing a novel,” Morrison said. “Luckily, it was never published.”

But in retirement, he revisited the idea.

“This time I’d write about something I do know,” Morrison said.

His series chronicles the legal adventures of twin brothers and tort lawyers Patrick A. “Pap” Peters and Prescott U. “Pup” Peters.

The first novel, “Torts ‘R’ Us,” was published in 2020.

This time around, the story involves UFOs, the Espionage Act, the Disney song “Some Day My Prince Will Come,” featured in Snow White, and the legal question: “Can anybody just sue Russia?”

Morrison said the first three novels focused on “the abuse of the class action lawsuit, to the extent there was a serious message.”

The fourth installment, about artificial intelligence, and the new one “are much more current.”

Asked about his writing regimen, Morrison said he still drafts everything by hand.

“I have a huge supply of No. 2 pencils and white legal pads,” Morrison said. “The first draft might take 35 pads. Then I go to the computer.”

Morrison said he relies on newspapers for raw material, including the Wall Street Journal and, particularly, the New York Post.

“The Post has a knack for covering crazy things that happen around the country,” he said. “I’d be lost without it.”

As a litigator, Morrison said he enjoyed writing briefs, and he took the word “brief” seriously, focusing on concise writing.

His colleagues wrote “as if they were still in law school,” he said.Morrison said he’d make his briefs shorter. “Tell the story I wanted to tell and stop,” he said.

One of his bosses didn’t think much of his style.

“He called it ‘Newsweek style.’ I took that as a compliment.”

Hochswender closed by asking if “Close Encounters with Tort$” would be the final book in the series.

“I think five books about wacky class action lawsuits is enough,” Morrison replied.