What is Big Tobacco doing in the Florida tobacco litigation now? They are sending out teams of lawyers and investigators to track down and interview each smoker’s sons, daughters, grandchildren, Aunt Mary, Uncle Bob, the third cousin twice removed, the neighbors, the neighbors neighbors—you get the idea.

So, what is Big Tobacco doing these days in the Florida “Engle” litigation? Are they aggressively trying to bring cases to trial so they can be vindicated? Are they conducting important investigation and discovery in an effort to further justice? Ah, not so much. I speak with clients each day […]

In 1995, David Kessler, former head of the Food and Drug Administration tried to regulate nicotine. His efforts failed when the regulations were struck down in the federal court system. Then, in 2004, the United States Senate passed proposed legislation to do so, only to have the House of Representatives […]

Joe Camel and his Big Tobacco crew crash landed in front of the US Judicial Panel on Mul-District Litigation. Big Tobacco had sought to convince the panel that all cases filed or removed to federal court should all be sent to multi-district litigation.

First it was the Engle case. You may remember that this is the case in which the Florida Supreme Court vacated a punitive damage verdict against Big Tobacco in the amount of $145.8 billion. The Supreme Court, however, also ruled that thousands of Florida smoking victims could file individual lawsuits […]

In the wake of a Florida Supreme Court ruling affirming that Big Tobacco purposely deceived the public about the dangers of smoking, research funded by tobacco companies has, understandably, become suspect. Tobacco-sponsored research outcomes are not merely grist for the rumor mill; Big Tobacco has actually been convicted of using […]

Never underestimate Big Tobacco. Stalled by recent court rulings affirming their lethal deception of the American public, cigarette companies decided to make an end run. In the face of state court verdicts against cigarette manufacturers (such as the Florida Supreme Court’s decision that nicotine is addictive, that cigarettes cause cancer, […]

Noted Miami attorney, J.B. Harris, has fired a new volley over the bow of Big Tobacco’s massive armada. We know that Big Tobacco has made a habit of targeting certain groups of people for whom they thought a marketing campaign could be advantageous. We remember the ads targeted towards women […]

Despite ever-increasing harsh penalties for drinking and driving, the problem of impaired driving is still an exceptionally serious problem on our roadways. Why is that? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), every day, 29 people in the U.S. die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an […]

Juul, the maker of one of the most popular vaping devices on the market, is the subject of yet another lawsuit filed by the attorney general of North Carolina. In this recent lawsuit, the co-founders of Juul are alleged to be personally responsible for the conduct of the company, which […]