Smoking
Lawsuit- You May Be Eligible For a Settlement Check
Smoking
Class Action Lawsuit
IF
YOU HAVE SMOKED, YOU MAY BE ELIGIBLE FOR A SETTLEMENT CHECK:
CONTACT CLASS ACTION LAW FIRMS FOR INFORMATION
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 inviolation of the law, monatary 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 Unitd
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 Tobbacco Lawsuits
A harse
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 compnaies 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 th United States
could be involved in the light cigarette lawsuit. One of the attorneys
involved with the casel 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 attornet 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 eveidence 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 wona
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 harse 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 itsUS 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.
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