Why tobacco litigation?

1 the tobacco control community cheered. The jury had calculated that only one in 28 000 Californians who have suffered from tobacco caused disease ever sues, so to make Philip Morris confront the real cost of its misbehaviour, they multiplied a typical $1 million compensatory damage award (for medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering) by 28 000. Right on! Even though the trial judge subsequently reduced the award to $28 million 2 that is still enough to encourage many more suits to be filed. Why ask " why tobacco litigation? " The reason is that the tobacco control community may soon have to decide just how important litigation is to achieving our goals. Two current examples put the issue nicely. First, the recently certified " Simon II " punitive damage class action 3 would strip the punitive damages claims from all cases that may be brought against tobacco companies by Americans who have become ill from their products, and allow these instead to be decided by a single jury verdict or settlement. Although in theory plaintiffs would still be able to recover compensatory damages in individual actions (medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and so on), in practice they may not be able to find lawyers willing to take their case on contingency fee where punitive damages are off the table. Thus while this procedure, if upheld on appeal, may offer financial benefits for tobacco victims and the tobacco control community, it may also effectively quash tobacco litigation in America. Furthermore , a possible jury decision finding the tobacco companies owe little or no punitive damages would be binding on all individual plaintiffs. What position should we take on this? Disagreement about the merits of a similar tradeoff in the " Global Settlement " of 1997 led to civil war within the community. 4 5 Second , the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control may contain provisions that could carry the possibility of viable tobacco litigation from the USA to the entire world. How hard should we press for these provisions, and what steps should we take to implement them if they are adopted? ACHIEVEMENTS SO FAR What then has litigation achieved for tobacco control? First, the millions of documents obtained in the state Medic-aid litigation and subsequent cases, now stored in paper depositories in Minne-sota in the USA and in Guildford in the UK and available online …