Legal

Ohio sells $5.05 billion of tobacco settlement bonds
Ohio recently sold slightly over $5 billion in future tobacco settlement payments. The state will begin collecting over $600,000 a day, which is part of a lump sum the state will receive in exchange for selling future payments from the tobacco industry. The sale will help pay for property tax cuts for the elderly and disabled and to initiate school construction projects. More specifically, any homeowner over the age of 65 or who has disabilities is eligible to have $25,000 of the value of the property forgiven, irrespective of the value of the home or the wealth of the homeowner. Click here to read more.

High court rejects industry appeal in historic tobacco case
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a tobacco industry challenge to the Engle tobacco decision, which gives Florida plaintiffs until January 11, 2008 to file individual suits. The original lawsuit, Engle v. R.J. Reynolds et al., sought billions of dollars in damages for over 700,000 Florida smokers who claimed that they were addicted to tobacco due to misleading claims by tobacco companies about the safety of their products. While the Florida Supreme Court threw out the suit, it upheld factual findings about the health effects of smoking and specified that plaintiffs with one or more of 20 diseases linked to smoking could file individual suits. Click here to read more about the ruling.

Critics question objectivity of government lung-scan study
The Lung Cancer Alliance and congressional oversight bodies are questioning the validity and objectivity of a large-scale federal study designed to determine whether annual CT scans of smokers’ lungs prevent death. The study, entitled the National Lung Screening Trial, is tracking 50,000 smokers for a nine-year period, and is funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The study’s objectivity is being called into question because two of the study’s researchers have accepted money from tobacco companies to testify as expert witnesses in lawsuits against the use of screening. Click here to read more.

Alberta, Ontario should lead remaining provinces in tobacco industry lawsuits
A discussion at the 5th National Conference on Tobacco or Health centered on the steps Canadian provinces could take to recoup billions of dollars for health care expenses from tobacco companies. Law students discussed new litigation strategies and lessons learned from Alberta, Ontario and the United States. If provinces were able to pass reforms similar to British Columbia’s Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs, they might be able to avoid long, expensive court cases. Three key reforms to pass include enabling the government to use statistical evidence at trial instead of individual medical files of smokers, establishing life limitations periods to address tobacco fraud, and reversing the burden of proof regarding violations of a manufacturer’s obligation to warn consumers. Click here to read more.

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