PHAI Takes Cigarette Companies to Court
For Immediate Release Contact: Mark Gottlieb – 617-373-2026 The Public Health Advocacy Institute (“PHAI”) announced today that its newly formed Center for Public Health Litigation has filed lawsuits against two major tobacco companies and several local distributors on behalf of the families of two former smokers who suffered devastating disease from smoking […]
Florida jury holds Philip Morris USA accountable for its actions in Federal Court
On September 16, 2014, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida returned a verdict of $27,010,000.14 against Philip Morris USA on behalf of Judith Berger, who started smoking in 1958 at the age of 14. Clearly outraged by evidence of Philip Morris’ conduct in targeting children, the jury awarded […]
Surgeon General Report Focuses on Tobacco Litigation (#SGR50); Massachusetts Seen as New Frontier
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Mark Gottlieb (617-373-2026) or Edward L. Sweda, Jr. (617-373-8462) Boston – The U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health, which was released today at the White House, highlighted the importance of litigation against tobacco companies over the past 50 years in the United States. Thanks to a landmark 2013 ruling by […]
Historic $79 Million Cigarette Settlement Signifies Beginning of Wave of Tobacco Cases in Massachusetts
If you someone in your family was recently harmed by smoking, please see our cigarette lawsuit information page. Boston FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Mark Gottlieb – 617-373-2026 Massachusetts is now the most favorable state in the country to bring a cigarette smoking personal injury case. A Massachusetts Tobacco Case Information Hotline has been established for victims of […]
PHAI publishes new resource: http://SmokeLitigation.org
PHAI has just published a new website consisting of searchable summaries of over 600 secondhand smoke lawsuits based in the United States. The cases stretch back to the 1970s and the data was most recently updated in July, 2013. We will continue to update the site and add new cases as well as indicate developments […]
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that all cigarettes sold in Massachusetts are defective
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Edward L. Sweda, Jr. or Mark Gottlieb 617-373-8462 or 617-373-2026 2010 Verdict Reflected Juror Outrage at Handouts of Free Cigarettes to Children. The SJC today unanimously rejected Lorillard Tobacco Co.’s attempt to evade liability in a case brought by Willie Evans, whose mother Marie died in 2002 at the age of […]
2013 Altria Group, Inc. Annual Shareholders Meeting: Politely conducting business as usual
By Edward L. Sweda, J.D. In sharp contrast to the manner in which management at Reynolds American, Inc. conducted its annual meeting of shareholders a week earlier, Altria Group, Inc.’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Martin J. Barrington treated everyone at the May 16th meeting in Richmond, Virginia with courtesy and politeness. Barrington began his presentation […]
Big Victory at Florida Supreme Court is Bad News for Cigarette Manufacturers
Florida smokers and their families who are suing tobacco companies won a resounding victory on March 14, 2013 when the Supreme Court of Florida upheld its landmark 2006 ruling in Engle v. Liggett Group, Inc., 945 So.2d 1246 (Fla. 2006). By a vote of 6 to 1, Florida’s highest court ruled in favor of the […]
Supreme Court Rejects Key Tobacco Industry Appeal Leaving “Massive Liability . . . with no End in Sight.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Edward L. Sweda 617-373-8462 Tobacco companies face the prospect of having to pay billions of dollars in liability to Florida smokers after the U.S. Supreme Court today denied Reynolds American’s petition for certiorari in the case of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. v. Mathilde Martin, No. 11-754. The company had appealed a […]
Canadian Class Action Lawsuits Seek Billions of Dollars from Major Tobacco Companies
Two historic class action lawsuits that were filed in 1998 finally reached trial on March 12, 2012 in Montreal. The cases, Cecilia Letourneau v. JTI_Macdonald Corp., Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. and Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. and Conseil quebecois sur le tabac et la santé and Jean-Yves Blais v. JTI-Macdonald Corp., Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. […]
