An Alachua County jury awarded $3,375,000 against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and Philip Morris USA, Inc. for the wrongful death of John Huish, who died of lung cancer after 46 years of smoking Lucky Strike, Camel and Marlboro cigarettes.  The verdict includes $3,000,000 in punitive damages. David J. Sales, James […]

Is the federal government finally getting tough on tobacco? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently announced it has rejected the approval of four proposed tobacco products while authorizing the marketing of two new ones.

In Ontario, Canada, Big Tobacco is currently under attack. Ontario claims that, among other things, Big Tobacco misrepresented the dangers of smoking and the addictiveness of nicotine to the public for decades. Ontario also claims that Big Tobacco caused or contributed to an additional $50 billion in health care costs. […]

Do cigarette manufacturers know their customers, or do cigarette manufacturers know their customers? A recent article in the New York Times found that “low-income smokers in New York spend 25% of their income on cigarettes.” While statistics like this might come as a surprise to regular folks like you and […]

Kids continue to be targets of tobacco manufacturers. They have been from the very beginning and as tobacco company sales fall, the tobacco industry has demonstrated a willingness to pull out all the stops to maintain their beginner smoking programs. In 2009, as part of President Obama’s comprehensive Family Smoking […]

Our law firm has tried eight trials in a row to successful plaintiffs’ verdicts; involving what has become known as the “Engle Progeny Cases”. These cases arise from the “Engle” case tried two decades ago in which juries heard 12 months of evidence and made a series of findings about […]

Big Tobacco has recently agreed to pay over $6 million to settle claims with the US Department of Justice. A summary of the conduct causing the $6 million payment? US district Court Judge Gladys Kessler, after hearing mountains of evidence, says this about the tobacco corporations: They lied. They misrepresented […]

As I have written many times before, I believe in the jury system, but it requires a well-informed jury, given all the facts and evidence, to arrive at a just decision. Based upon my own research and the below discussion, I must conclude that, more likely than not, the jurors […]

Big Tobacco is not only finding it hot in the great State of Florida, but also in the great State of Connecticut as well. There, a federal court judge, Hon. Stefan Underhill, was asked by RJ Reynolds to overturn a jury verdict for the plaintiff in the amount of $28 […]

Is it the job of investment companies, such as Morgan Stanley, to provide analysis reports about industries with a one-sided slant to them? No, and their recent report on the state of financial exposure to tobacco companies by “Engle Progeny” cases is not one-sided, but in my view, it certainly […]