On April 14, 2010, SDSBS attorneys Bill Norton, Brian Denney and Hardee Bass won a $21 million verdict against Big Tobacco for their clients in Escambia County Florida for the wrongful death of Janie Mae Clay.  The jury awarded $3.4 million for compensatory damages to the statutory survivors, Teddy Clay, […]

It seems clear that it is not clear… or is it the things we know do not include the unknowns…or is it the things we don’t know are known unknowns? In any event, based on comments I have seen in blogs, one thing is clear: the public does not understand […]

Those Big Tobacco guys are at it again. Do they not care for Florida juries, Florida judges, or the Florida Supreme Court? At the least, Big Tobacco does not like the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in the “Engle” cases. These cases stem from a class, which was decertified by the […]

As thousands of Post-Engle cases wind their way through the Florida court system, Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds, Lorillard and Liggett & Myers are facing daily challenges.  After years of priding themselves on winning most of  the lawsuits filed against them through historic “scorched earth” tactics, it appears that those […]

First, let me start with a disclaimer of sorts. I admire people who have professions I wish I had; writers, for example. I admire someone who can combine words on a page and make me think or help me escape. I thought, though, that if you chose to write non-fiction […]

In Alachua County, located in the middle of the Sunshine State, a jury heard evidence from Big Tobacco in defense of deceased smoker. They rendered verdicts totaling $16 million against Big Tobacco. The jury did not believe Big Tobacco. The spin, the deceit, or the rewriting history apparently did not […]

Ya gotta love those guys at Big Tobacco. Deny, deny, deny. If that doesn’t work, spin, spin, spin. If that doesn’t work, try reinventing history. In Florida, jurors have been hearing the truth about Big Tobacco antics over the years; and deny, spin, and lies is no longer working for […]

You just have to love Big Tobacco. Produce a product you know kills people; hide or deflect all the information that would alert the public of the totality of the dangers; engineer nicotine delivery in a way that maximizes addiction and write memos talking about the whole scheme as if […]

You have to love Big Tobacco.  Nothing gets them down – no sir! They can cry foul with the best of ’em; even when they get caught with their hands in the cookie jar. First, a jury sees through their smoke and mirrors in a trial down in Fort Lauderdale, […]

Today, a Broward county jury delivered a verdict against Big Tobacco that should have sent a message. When jurors in good faith hear the evidence of misconduct, fraud, and deception practiced by the tobacco industry for decades, jurors are willing to render a verdict that relates to the egregious nature […]