PALM BEACH, Fla., Aug. 18 LAWFUEL – Legal News Network — A U.S. District judge
yesterday ruled that the United States’ top cigarette makers conspired for decades to mislead the public about the health hazards and addictive nature of smoking. That decision mirrors findings recently affirmed by Florida’s
Supreme Court that Big Tobacco has been conspiring for years to mislead
consumers and that its products are both cancer causing and defective.
It appears that a groundswell of legal precedent is mounting to finally
put addicted cigarette smoking victims on an even playing field with
billion dollar tobacco companies. It is expected that the Florida Supreme
Court’s recent ruling will result in as many as 100,000 individual smokers lawsuits being filed in Florida. The law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley (Searcy Denney, West Palm Beach) will be filing hundreds if not thousands of the smokers’ suits.
Cal Warriner, a partner at Searcy Denney says the Chicago Federal
Judge’s recent ruling will force big tobacco to “publicly humiliate
themselves by directly contradicting sworn testimony given by their CEO’s
before Congress just a few years ago. It is about time for Big Tobacco to
fess up. Courts are finally holding tobacco companies liable for killing
hundreds of thousands of Americans.” Warriner is leading the effort to hold cigarette makers accountable for their actions in Florida.
The ruling found Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds, Brown & Williamson,
British American Tobacco and Lorillard Tobacco guilty of misleading the
public about the harmful consequences of smoking to human health.
WHO: Cal Warriner of the law firm of Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart &
Shipley.
WHAT: Expects more than 100,000 cases to be filed in Florida courts.
