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Light Cigarette Lawsuit Information

Cigarette Smokers can legally sue tobacco companies over the marketing of so-called “light” cigarettes. In a recent decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of smokers who were tricked by cigarette companies to think that light cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes.

The supreme court justices, voting on the decision split 5-4, said a US federal cigarette labeling law does not shield the cigarette manufacturers from class action lawsuits accusing them of falsely advertising to consumers by describing certain cigarettes as “light” or “low tar.” The supreme court also said US federal control of cigarette lawsuits and tobacco testing did not preclude those lawsuits.

Light-cigarette lawsuits are the biggest smoking lawsuit facing the tobacco companies, with many smoking lawsuits are now filed against Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco and other cigarette manufacturers. Light cigarettes account for more than eighty percent of the United States smoking market, according to federal numbers.

The Supreme Court ruling “gives a green light to conventional fraud claims against the tobacco industry,” said Donald Lasterson, a University law professor who filed a smoking lawsuit information statement backing the smokers.

Light Cigarette Class Action Settlement

It's a long battle to receive a settlement check, but Lawsuit Attorneys speed the process along, in many cases by months. The Smoking Lawsuit Class Action Information Center has helped Hundreds of smokers get settlement checks to be used for health care and other expenses. The smoking lawsuits face other hurdles, including the reluctance of some lower courts to grant cigarette lawsuits class action status, a legal designation that lets smokers band together to fight the giant tobacco companies..

The Smoking Lawsuit Settlement Check surprised some legal industry analysts who had earlier predicted that the tobacco companies would win in the latest court battles. Cigarette companies used “very, very dirty and effective defenses” to the smoking lawsuit.
Anti-smoking groups applauded the ruling. “It’s a very happy and historic day in the of tobacco lawsuit litigation,” said Ernest Swanson, an class action attorney at the Tobacco Products Liability lawsuit foundation.
Cigarette companies now face around forty other smoking class action lawsuit. Anti Smoking Groups say that Philip Morris and other cigarette manufacturers have known for a very long time that smokers usually compensate for reduced tar and nicotine levels in light cigarettes by inhaling more deeply and frequently.

Lawsuit against 'light' cigarettes gets the OK for class action certification

A U.S. federal judge recently approved class action lawsuit status to a two hundred billion dollar class-action lawsuit filed by smokers of "light" cigarettes against tobacco cigarette companies and made way for a trial by jury.The class action lawsuit alleged that cigarette companies have been misleading smokers for years by describing the light cigarettes as safer to smoke than regular cigarettes. The court's ruling will possibly benefit many thousands of chronic smokers who smoked the light type of cigarettes since as early as 1971 by way of claims from corporations named in the recent lawsuit. The plaintiffs in the court case includes 8 'light' addicted cigarette smokers from around the United States that claim that the cigarette manufacturing companies defrauded them and millions of other smokers and are seeking economic damages, rather than getting compensation for the millions of deaths or diseases that have been caused by smoking cigarettes. The plaintiffs claim that the industry purposely intended to shift buyers to 'lighter' cigarettes because of the growing health concerns about smoking and cancer.

Personal Injury Lawyers for the victims plead their case before a United States Federal Judge of the eastern district of New York, claiming that cigarette companies have made an extra two hundred billion dollars in extra sales by defrauding customers by advertising that 'light' cigarettes were safer than regular cigarettes. "Light Tar" and "Natural" cigarettes were introduced to the consumer marketplace in the 1970s. The new light cigarette lawsuit is called called the Schwab case after the first plaintiff, Ms Barbara Schwab. The light cigarette lawsuit has been filed under federal racketeering laws and if the cigarette manufacturers are found to have been in violation of the law, monetary damages can be tripled. The Tobacco Lawsuit claims that the tobacco industry started defrauding smokers as early as 1971, when the Philip Morris Company started selling Marlboro Lights, the first 'light' cigarette to be unleashed on the addicted smoker.
Settlement Check Status

The judge in the smoking lawsuit submitted a very lengthy ruling that basically said that the case has to be adjudicated, even if the plaintiffs are still yet to give concrete proof of their damages."That the United States District court believes, on the legal evidence so far presented, that the amount of possible damages might have been exaggerated by the plaintiffs injury lawyer and is not an actual basis for denying their rights to a trial by jury." The judge also added saying, "Any Adjustments to the damages can be made later-after all the evidence has been presented and the jury has come to a conclusion."

IF YOU HAVE SMOKED, YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR A SETTLEMENT CHECK:
CONTACT CLASS ACTION LAW FIRMS FOR INFORMATION

The Federal Tobacco Lawsuit Judge said cigarettes are "the basis for a pandemic, causing premature death to millions of Americans and people worldwide." "When cigarette smokers can positively demonstrate in a court of law that he or a group of tobacco smokers has been damaged in some way by the tobacco companies, the help of the U.S. court in resolving the claims and defenses is very mandatory," he stated. Tobacco Companies have been stating that addicted smokers cannot prove the monetary damages to an entire class of light cigarette smokers. Included as the defendants in the tobacco class action law suit are Altria's Philip Morris unit, Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco, Liggett Group belonging to Vector Group , R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. unit, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. and British American Tobacco. Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said they would appeal the Tobacco Lawsuit Federal Judge's decision.

As per the legal procedure for court proceedings, before the lawsuit can proceed to a trial by jury, the class-action lawsuit ruling should be upheld by the Second circuit district of the United States Court of Appeals. Legal experts feel it might not survive such an appeals process. Other Legal Analysts said the court case represents the biggest legal liability for the tobacco companies since the United States Government sued for 300 billion dollars in a WA State class action lawsuit against cigarette companies that was filed in late 1999. According to the class action lawyers the "light tar"' cigarettes make up as much as 85% of all cigarette sales.

Tobacco cigarette smoke contains thousands of known chemicals, many of them known cancer-causing carcinogens, "light cigarettes" have been advertised as having a lot less nicotine, the main addictive chemical in tobacco cigarettes. Tobacco companies state that these light flavored cigarettes are produced in different ways from regular tobacco cigarettes and that they have tiny little microscopic holes that dilute the smoke so it won't hurt you. But, doctors and medical research specialists found out that people just draw harder and deeper on buy light cigarettes, most of the time filling up their dirty lungs with more and toxic chemicals than they would get from regular full strength smokes.

Cigarette Companies Lose Key Court Decision on Latest Tobacco Lawsuits

A harsher legal blow to the Cigarette Companies was handed out by a federal judge in New York that recently ruled that consumers that smoked light cigarettes that were sometimes advertised as a safe alternative to regular strength smokes can go ahead and continue with their fraud claim as a smoking class-action lawsuit. A federal judge in Federal District Court in New York ruled that “substantial evidence” that the tobacco companies knew that the light cigarettes were at least as medically dangerous as regular tobacco cigarettes. The decision comes at a time when the cigarette industry felt it was gaining on a legal winning streak.

The class action lawsuit was first filed in 2004 against Philip Morris USA, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, and other companies including British American Tobacco, Liggett Group, Brown & Williamson and Lorillard Tobacco. It is different from a lot of previous tobacco class action lawsuits because it does not claim that the smokers suffered any personal injuries. Instead, the light cigarette lawsuit called the Schwab case claims that the tobacco industry defrauded the consumers beginning in the year 1971, when Philip Morris company began selling the brand Marlboro Lights, which was the first light cigarette.

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Statistics prove that over 45 percent of all smokers currently smoke the light cigarettes, so potential millions of smokers in the United States could be involved in the light cigarette lawsuit. One of the attorneys involved with the case who is representing the plaintiffs, has said that the class could each tens of millions of people and involve damages of up to $200 billion. The Federal racketeering laws being cited would allow any damage award to be tripled.

A Lawyer for the general counsel of Altria Company, whose Philip Morris Corporation manufactures half the United States' cigarettes, said “the class action judge is dead-wrong on the laws and is totally wrong on the facts of the case.” The attorney said that the government agencies, not the Cigarette companies, originally promoted the idea that light cigarettes were a much safer alternative to full strength cigarettes. The attorney also said that the Supreme Court decisions and other court rules can prevent from treating fraud cases as class action lawsuits because each individual claims of evidence of false statements must be proved in a court of law. This recent court ruling is a setback to what tobacco companies have previously described as an “improving legal environment” for the tobacco industry.

Light Cigarette Lawsuit companies in recent years and months had won few court victories. Recently, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to throw out a multi-billion dollar judgment in a tobacco class-action suit. In addition, the Illinois Supreme Court tossed out a similar Ten billion dollar tobacco judgment against Philip Morris company. Most recently the Smoking lawsuit judge in Federal District Court issued a harsher decision in the U.S. Department of Justice’s landmark racketeering lawsuit. The judge concluded that the tobacco companies had engaged in a forty year conspiracy to defraud tobacco smokers about the health risks and dangers of tobacco, including the lies and deceptions about light cigarettes and low-tar cigarettes.

The federal Judge then ordered cigarette companies to stop labeling their packs of cigarettes as “low tar cigarettes” or “light cigarettes” to make people believe that they were much less dangerous or hazardous than full-strength cigarettes, the judge said an earlier ruling prevented her from handing out what might have been 10 billion dollars in damages. The recent court ruling also brings into uncertainty about the long-running plans by Altria corporation, the parent company of Philip Morris Company, to divest the Kraft Foods business unit from its US and overseas tobacco producing businesses.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers have been filing tobacco class-action lawsuits against tobacco makers since the late 1980's but this is the first light cigarette court case to be certified as a class-action in a federal court of law. Right now, 3 other light cigarette lawsuit cases have been granted class-action certification, all in local state courts and containing lower numbers of cigarette smokers.

Information About Smoking Lawsuit

Smoking Lawsuit
Information Center

You may be eligible for a settlement. Contact any of the law firms listed to help you file a claim. We provide information on the following Smoking Class Action :