Tom Morrison of Salisbury has just published his third comic novel, “Send in the Tort Lawyers.”
The book chronicles the ongoing and absurd adventures of Pap and Pup Peters, brothers and lawyers specializing in class action lawsuits — the crazier, the better.
In a phone interview on Wednesday, Sept. 20, Morrison was asked about making fun of his own profession.
“Frankly, it’s one of my pet peeves” Morrison said of lawyers who have no sense of humor about themselves. “It’s delicious fun for me to write books that skewer lawyers.”
At least some legal people agree. Morrison noted that he includes the American Museum of Tort Law in Winsted, Conn., among his fans, which has the two previous installments on display.
The lawsuits and incidents described start out fairly nuts and steadily get crazier. Suing the Russian secret police, for instance, or testifying before the state legislature on attracting tort law activity as an economic development strategy for cities like Bridgeport and Hartford, Conn.
Asked how much exaggeration he deploys, Morrison said not that much. He doesn’t have to make stuff up.
Using a recent example of a California congressman caught up with other prominent men in a “honey trap” with a woman suspected of being a Chinese spy, Morrison said, “I take the underlying story, twist it a bit, add some humorous components.
“There was no actual class action on behalf of honey trap victims,” he added, but he keeps a running file of stories about class action lawsuits for use as raw material.
Morrison has fun with names: psychiatrist Dr. Hazel Nutt, or Judge Lee Waye.
Asked if he ever considers and then rejects a funny name as being just too silly, he said not really.
“Names occur to me all the time, when I’m shaving or doing yard work. I keep a list and when I sit down to write, I look for one that matches the plot.”
The book is described on its cover as “a legal farce.” Morrison was asked about the difference between farce and satire.
“Farce is one step beyond satire,” he said.
His literary model is Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22.”
The subject, the Army Air Corps in World War II, “is serious stuff, but Heller had no problem making fun of it with every character, every scene.”
Tom Morrison will be signing books at the Salisbury Fall Festival on Saturday, Oct. 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Main Street in Salisbury.
