Florida Tobacco Medicaid Suit News on the Web
Archive, July, August, 1997
Note: These articles wink in and out of existence with the frequency of sub-atomic particles. Many links will be dead. In that case, these pages can be approached as bibliographies, both noting the event, and showing where you might look for further information.
- It is not coincidence that, decades ago, tobacco executives made a very conscious -- and from a business standpoint, very wise -- decision to hire the brightest army of lawyers they could find. When Florida becomes the first state in the country to take its lawsuit against the industry to trial on Aug. 1, tobacco will be ready. "There's no substitute for good legal help," said R. Dal Burton, an R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. attorney in Atlanta. . . . "They are the best money can buy," said Bob Montgomery, a West Palm Beach attorney and a member of the state's team . . . "They are absolutely peerless. They will whip your butt."
- The judge in Florida's Medicaid lawsuit claiming $1 billion from cigarette makers refused Wednesday to force the state government to prove its costs for each of an estimated 400,000 sick smokers. The grouping of claims is central to Florida's case, now making its way toward an Aug. 4 trial, and the judge's denial of the tobacco industry request was one of the few victories he has allowed the state in two weeks of pretrial hearings.
- 07/01/97 Hill & Knowlton Decision May Help Insurers Reuters
- "Hill & Knowlton was probably the number one candidate for third party liability to come in and surprise" the insurance industry, said Alan Levin, managing director at Standard & Poor's. "That was the one area where we thought there might be some potential," he said. But, if the courts dismissed the damage claims against the third parties, as Florida did with Hill & Knowlton, they might have little need to turn to their insurers. In his decision, state judge Harold Cohen said Hill & Knowlton's actions took place too far in the past for it to be considered a partner in the conspiracy to misinform the public alleged by Florida in the suit. The judge pointed out that Florida's racketeering statute was not passed until 1977, nine years after Hill & Knowlton ceased providing any public relations support to the tobacco industry.
- Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold Cohen ruled that the public relations firm could not be held liable for health injuries suffered by thousands of Medicaid patients because it was never involved in the manufacture or sale of cigarettes. However, Cohen left open the possibilty that Hill and Knowlton could be held liable for triple damages for its advertising efforts on behalf of the tobacco companies -- if Florida is successful in proving cigarette makers engaged in a criminal racketeering effort.
- Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Harold Cohen ruled that neither the Council for Tobacco Research-USA Inc nor the Tobacco Institute Inc would be liable for paying any part of the health-care costs claimed by the state of Florida. He said neither was liable because they did not manufacture or distribute cigarettes. But Cohen refused to dismiss the trade groups from other counts alleging the industry conspired to hide the dangers of smoking through false advertising and false statements to journalists and Congress.
- Cigarette makers will use the state's own words in the tobacco industry's defense against Florida's $2.7 billion Medicaid lawsuit, a company attorney said Monday. As a plaintiff, the state claims nicotine addiction is comparable to drug addiction and that cigarette makers conspired to hide the dangers of smoking and manipulated nicotine levels to hook consumers into a lifetime of smoking. But as a defendant in a federal lawsuit brought by a prison inmate who wants help to kick the habit, the state says nicotine addiction is easy to get over and calls smoking a personal choice -- a defense long used by tobacco companies. . . Inmate Thomas Waugh, who is serving a 20-year sentence for unarmed robbery, sued the state Department of Corrections in federal court. Waugh, who is representing himself, claims the state is violating his constitutional rights by not providing him with nicotine patches or other treatments that might help him quit smoking. Deputy Attorney General Peter Antonacci called the state's arguments in the Waugh case "goofy" and admitted they are inconsistent with the state's position against cigarette makers.
- Trial is set Aug. 1 in West Palm Beach on a state lawsuit seeking $2.7 billion to cover Medicaid funds spent on sick Florida smokers. But with the national and Mississippi settlements reached within two weeks, Butterworth expects an overture from Big Tobacco. "I would assume we'll be hearing from the industry fairly quickly," he said. "I assume Florida will be contacted by the industry and will try to work out something with us." Florida has the advantage of a state law stripping the industry of a traditional defense: Smokers are to blame for their illnesses. Butterworth has presented a settlement offer to industry lawyers in Washington but, "we were so far apart last week, we weren't even in the same ballpark in the same city."
- "We're four weeks away from jury selection. It'll be another month before a judge will hear opening statements .... Given the fact our case is at least a couple months away, I think it would be a little premature for both sides to discuss settlement in the Florida case," he said. Butterworth said last week's meeting lasted just a few hours, with the state and the cigarette companies far apart on many issues. "We spent a couple of hours across the table last week and came to the conclusion real, real quickly that there was just no way that Florida could settle at this point in time," Butterworth said. "We're just too far off."
- "Mississippi's settlement will have no effect on our plans to go to trial," [Butterworth Spokesman Joe] Bizzaro said.
- Citing a new law that paved the way for the lawsuit and stripped the industry of its traditional defense that smokers are to blame for their diseases, Cohen disagreed that the state could not prove a link between alleged misconduct and the illnesses of Medicaid patients. "There is no state or entity that has our 1994 amendments," Cohen said ruling on arguments that he heard late Tuesday. "And I recognize the (racketeering) action in this case is rather unique." Philip Morris Cos. attorney Murray Garnick argued the state had to prove not only that false advertising, deception or conspiracy occurred, but that it caused every single one of the thousands of Medicaid recipients to smoke. . . Arguing for the state, W.C. Gentry accused the tobacco industry of trying to interject the defenses they were stripped of in the 1994 law. That law allows the state to sue for the losses in one case rather than have a trial for each Medicaid recipient.
- The cigarettes were nicknamed RIPs -- rest in peace -- by the people who smoked them. They were made from raw tobacco and loaded with pesticides, trash and dangerous additives. Even worse, the RIPs were often given to minors. . . packages boasted a bright orange picture of the state of Florida, which produced the high-nicotine, no-filter cigarettes for four decades. . . "They were very harsh. Even when they were fresh they were harsh."
- 07/11/97 Tobacco Parent Firms Under Fire Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
- In September 1996, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Cohen dismissed B.A.T. Industries, Batus Holdings Inc. and Loews Corp. from the lawsuit first brought by the state in February 1995. . . Batus Holdings and Britain's B.A.T. Industries are parent corporations of Louisville, Ky.-based Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., the third-largest cigarette maker in the United States. B.A.T. is also the parent of British American Tobacco Co., and Loews is the parent of Lorillard Tobacco Co. All of the cigarette manufacturers are wholly owned subsidiaries of the parent companies. . . The state's lawyers produced documents showing that Brown & Williamson attorneys worked with B.A.T. Industries attorneys to shield sensitive and potentially damaging information from the courts. The documents, the state says, show the parent company offering guidance for burying sensitive information by using attorney-client privilege. "They are controlling and they are intimately involved in the conspiracy as well as the manufacture and dissemination of fraudulent science as well as the manufacture of cigarettes," said Philip Burlington, an attorney for the state. Attorneys for the parent companies denied they controlled the manufacturers and said they were merely stockholders in the smaller companies.
- Gov. Lawton Chiles and Attorney General Bob Butterworth have been meeting with representatives of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and other cigarette manufacturers to discuss possible settlement terms. Chiles says in order for Florida to withdraw the suit, which is scheduled for trial in early August, the tobacco industry must agree to certain restrictions on marketing, advertising and sales in the state.
- Attorneys for the state of Florida on Thursday asked a state appeals court to overrule a lower court decision dismissing B.A.T Industries Plc (BATS.L) (BTI), Loews Corp (LTR) and Batus Holdings Inc as defendants in the state's $1 billion Medicaid lawsuit. The state said it had presented Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Harold Cohen last September with sufficient evidence to show that the three holding companies controlled the activities of their subsidiaries in Florida. In September Cohen dismissed the three holding companies as defendants after finding they did not actively operate tobacco businesses.
- Florida was ordered Thursday to explain to each of 13 tobacco industry defendants named in the state's $1 billion Medicaid lawsuit what they did that caused harm to Medicaid recipients. Special Master William Rutter told attorneys for the state that they had to provide the information by July 28, the day Palm Beach Circuit Court Judge Harold Cohen will begin a final round of hearings before the jury trial begins Aug. 4. . . Rutter also told Florida's attorneys to provide tobacco companies with the state's definition of a "safer cigarette."
- Most are millionaires, many are chummy with governors, some drive Rolls-Royces and own oceanfront villas. A few, such as West Palm Beach attorney Bob Montgomery, who has poured millions into the arts and children's charities, see their names not just on court dockets but in society columns. For most of the state's legal team members, the fight of their career will begin Aug. 1, when 300 potential jurors arrive in West Palm Beach for Case No. 95-1466, the state of Florida vs. American Tobacco et al.
- In his 11th-floor office, marveling at a violent storm rumbling toward West Palm Beach from the Atlantic Ocean, Judge Harold J. Cohen seems comfortably above the fray. As the judge who will preside over Florida's lawsuit against the tobacco industry, his challenge will be to stay that way. Precluding a settlement in the next two weeks, Cohen will soon be at the heart of a storm steeped in money, politics and legal tactics.
- They include memos on trial strategy, a 1964 consumer survey, a 1966 letter on the status of special company projects and a 1978 letter about carbon monoxide analysis. . . the appeals court said "The special master found that there was evidence that the defendants hid from and misrepresented to the public the health risks of smoking and that their conduct constituted a fraud on the public." [The defendants] "utilized their attorneys in carrying out their misrepresentations.'
- "This ruling, plainly and simply, is wrong," said Gregory Little, senior assistant general counsel for Philip Morris, "and we intend to challenge it, or appeal immediately."
- Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles answered questions Wednesday on his experiences with cigarettes and his personal investments in preparation for the state's lawsuit against tobacco companies. Chiles . . . was deposed for nearly five hours as the two sides prepared for the trial, scheduled to begin August 1. "They've asked me everything from when I was born to the time I was in state Legislature to when I was in Congress," Chiles said as he returned for the afternoon round of questions.
- Industry analysts say the state's case is vulnerable in three fundamental areas. First, based on the 1994 law, the state will represent an anonymous pool of 400,000 smokers. The state will use federal statistics, showing, for example, what percentage of emphysema patients contracted it through smoking, to estimate the damages they are seeking. Defendants typically have the right to sample or survey members of the "class" that is suing them. . . "How do you know that these Medicaid recipients earned their right to be in the pool? Do we know that they were smokers? It should put the legal community up in arms. . ." Second, the state has earned billions of dollars through cigarette taxes. . . Third, the 1994 legislation will present daunting constitutional issues, namely, can a state write itself a law specifically to hamper an industry it plans to sue?
- Florida attorneys said Friday they expected to get their hands on some contested Liggett Group Inc. documents within a week, following an appeals court ruling Friday giving the tobacco attorneys until Tuesday to seek a rehearing on their release. "This is great news, great news," said W.C. Gentry, one of Florida's lead attorneys in its Medicaid case against tobacco firms.
- In its monthly bulletin in 1906, the Florida Board of Health dubbed cigarettes "the worst form of tobacco addiction," tainted with "cigar stumps and street scrapings." There was "every argument against its use." More than 70 years later, on June 1, 1979, then-Gov. Bob Graham issued a formal proclamation lauding tobacco as an industry that deserves public support because of its benefit to the state's economy. And just two years ago, the state Department of Agriculture was begging Philip Morris to sponsor the State Fair -- and offering the designation of Feb. 10, 1996, as "Benson & Hedges Day." Two days before Florida becomes the first of 40 states to go to trial against the tobacco industry, cigarette makers argued they should be able to use the state's hypocrisy to defend itself against racketeering and fraud charges.
- "The fact that the state did some bad things is not a due process offense," Cohen ruled. "The state did not encourage concealment . . . did not encourage the manufacture of silence" or engage in any alleged racketeering. But the judge ruled tobacco industry lawyers could raise the issue again, if they were to come up with evidence of government involvement in a crime.
- 07/29/97 Jury Can Consider FLORIDA Role as Cigarette Maker--Judge Reuters
- Jury selection is scheduled to begin Friday in Florida's lawsuit seeking to recover Medicaid costs for treating tobacco-related illness. The state has sought to prevent the jury from learning that Florida made cigarettes in state prisons from 1935 through 1978, when it went out of the business. The cigarettes were made by prisoners and were distributed to inmates and sold in state hospitals, health facilities and other state and county offices. But Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold Cohen ruled Tuesday that the jury could consider the state's action in assessing penalties against the tobacco companies if the panel finds the cigarette makers guilty of defruading the public about the health danger of smoking.
- A judge rejected claims Monday that federal cigarette labeling laws immunize the tobacco industry from much of the state's landmark case against the manufacturers. And Circuit Judge Harold Cohen dealt the cigarette makers a double blow when he vastly increased the amount of potential damages. He ruled that if a jury finds the industry guilty of fraud and racketeering, tobacco companies could be ordered to surrender some or all of their profits since 1977.
- Robert Butterworth, the Florida state attorney general, said on Monday that he would not settle the state's Medicaid-related lawsuit against tobacco producers unless they drop their efforts to prevent the release of eight sensitive Liggett Group documents. "Unless they show good faith and let these documents go there is no way they're going to see me at a bargaining table," Butterworth said.
- The tobacco industry has rejected proposed curbs on cigarette advertising, a key to Florida settling its lawsuit against the industry, and Attorney General Bob Butterworth said on Monday the two sides remain far from a deal. "I see no reason to go back to the table," Butterworth said in West Palm Beach as attorneys on both sides prepared to take Florida's case to trial on Friday. "We made demands, and they wouldn't accept them."
- A Florida judge ruled Monday that the state must prove to a jury that tobacco companies engaged in conduct that would mislead the public about the hazards of smoking. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold Cohen said the state must provide the jury ultimately selected to hear the $1 billion Florida Medicaid lawsuit with "clear and convincing evidence" that cigarette makers joined together in an illegal enterprise to further their alleged scheme. . . Lawyers for the state had asked Cohen to find that the "enterprise" existed and was proved by the tobacco companies' association through the Tobacco Institute and the Council for Tobacco Research, two industry groups. But Cohen refused, ruling that the issue must be put before the jurors. "The jury is entitled to make a finding that an enterprise exists," and that the "evidence is clear and convincing" that criminal intent existed on the part of the defendants, he ruled.
- The legal arguments are complex, but Bleakley offered this analogy: If someone cuts a finger while cooking, the person would be hard-pressed to sue the company that made the knife based solely on the fact that the knife was sharp. Everyone knows knives are sharp. To win a lawsuit, the person would have to prove that there was something wrong with the knife, such as a defective handle that came loose and caused it to slip. Following the judge's ruling, Bleakley said, the state is only required to prove that the "knife" was sharp -- that cigarettes cause disease. . . Following the judge's ruling, Bleakley said, the state is only required to prove that the "knife" was sharp -- that cigarettes cause disease. The ruling follows several other important ones on Wednesday: Cohen also ruled that tobacco cannot:
- Claim that Florida cares more about smoking than gambling or alcohol use;
- Suggest that smokers might cost Medicaid less because they die earlier than nonsmokers.
- Mention that the state once produced its own cigarettes.
- The judge in Florida's landmark tobacco lawsuit dealt cigarette-makers a severe blow yesterday, ruling that the industry could not use its best defense: that the public was aware of the dangers of smoking. Judge Harold Cohen of Circuit Court, citing a 1994 law that makes it easier for the state to sue tobacco companies, said that industry attorneys must limit their defense to "we didn't do it" and that cigarettes are not a defective product.
- The judge in Florida's billion-dollar lawsuit against the tobacco industry on Friday barred news organizations from publishing pictures of prospective jurors. . . "There have been threats to lawyers, there have been crank calls and crank mail to the courts," Cohen said in announcing his ruling to a group of attorneys and state officials that included Gov. Lawton Chiles and Attorney General Bob Butterworth.
- Some 300 potential jurors will get instructions from the judge and then fill out questionnaires for a month-long screening process.
- "For the first time the people are going to get to hear ... what tobacco has been covering up for years," Gov. Lawton Chiles said today at the Palm Beach County Courthouse, where he and Attorney General Bob Butterworth came to watch the start of jury selection.
- This week the judge overseeing the case, West Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold J. Cohen, relied on the statute to strip the industry of its time-tested defense: that the public has long been aware of the hazards of smoking. "The one defense we viewed that would win the case for us has been eliminated," says Peter Bleakley, lead counsel for Philip Morris Cos. The ruling, he says, means the state has to prove only that cigarettes cause disease, not any wrongdoing by the companies. "It certainly is going to force us to rethink o ur defense posture," he adds.
- With no settlement in sight, Florida's landmark tobacco lawsuit is headed to trial with 300 potential jurors set to gather today to start a selection process expected to last a month.
- A Florida judge ruled on Thursday that the answers given by prospective jurors on a jury questionnaire in the state's billion-dollar lawsuit against tobacco companies can be made public. . . The ruling went against the wishes of attorneys for the state and the tobacco industry, who urged Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold Cohen to keep the answers private. . . W.C. Gentry, an attorney representing the state, said he felt the privacy of jurors should be protected and they might be "more candid" if they knew the only people to see the answers would be the judge and attorneys.
- The extraordinary rulings appear to prevent the tobacco companies from challenging the state's assertion that it did not know the health risks of smoking. These rulings are contrary to an earlier ruling of the Florida Supreme Court. And, the trial court ruled that the companies may not use testimony from individual Medicaid recipients to challenge the states claim that its statistical Medicaid damage model is free from problems of fraud, misdiagnosis and unnecessary treatments.
- In response to Judge Cohen's ruling, AIF vowed to continue its fight to repeal once and for all Florida's Medicaid Third-Party Liability Act because Wednesday's ruling confirms that all legal businesses in Florida no longer will receive a fair trial when challenged under this skewed and inequitable law. "This law is a threat for as long as it stays on the books. It will always attract trial lawyers and people who have a grudge against some industry," said Jon L. Shebel, AIF's president and CEO. "When the law is read, one simply realizes that it poses the most severe threat to Florida businesses that anyone can find in the statutes today." So who is next? As AIF has said time and time again, this law does not mention tobacco. It is clear that the statute relates to any and all legal products and can be used against anyone.
- With the overtones of a holy war -- including references to a jihad and David and Goliath -- a most uncivil of civil trials begins here today: the State of Florida, Lawton M. Chiles Jr., vs. The American Tobacco Co., et al.
- "We are doing a lot better than I had anticipated," Cohen said. By the end of jury selection for the day he had approved 28 of the first 60 people interviewed.
- Questionnaires filled out by the first 120 of 334 prospective jurors in the state's billion dollar lawsuit against Big Tobacco show that for the most part, they think cigarettes are downright foul. . . So few of the potential jurors smoke, and so many despise smoking, that the leader of Florida's trial team questioned on Monday whether tobacco could get a fair trial. So many could be dismissed for their biases, said West Palm Beach attorney Bob Montgomery, that a pool of 334 might not be enough.
- Of the first 10 prospective jurors interviewed today by Circuit Judge Harold Cohen, seven were excused because serving for up to six months would create an undue financial burden. . . "If the trend holds, you're probably going to be left with about one-third who are physically or financially able to come back," Cohen told attorneys.
- As they crowded into Palm Beach County Circuit Courthouse on Friday for the first day of jury selection in the case, a judge delivered the bad news. The six jurors and nine alternates selected to hear the trial could have to clear their schedules until the end of the year. The news, delivered by Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Harold Cohen elicted gasps, mumbling and finally nervous laughter from prospective jurors on Friday. Then came an understatement. "I know that many of you do not want to serve on this case," Cohen told his audience.
- A state appeals court Tuesday ordered the release of internal tobacco industry documents that the state says shows cigarette makers lied to the public and conspired to cover up the risks of smoking. . . In a related decision, a special master found the Tobacco Institute, the industry's lobbying and public relations arm, also used attorneys to hide information on smoking's dangers and industry plans to target young people.
- 08/06/97 Tobacco Cos Will Not Appeal Release of Joint Privilege Documents PM Business Wire
- "As any objective reader will see, there is nothing in any of these documents that remotely justifies setting aside this most important principle of law. We disagree with the court's ruling, and we still firmly maintain that these documents are proper and show nothing more than conscientious lawyers offering legal advice on legal issues," said Gregory G. Little, senior assistant general counsel for Philip Morris. "Plaintiffs' lawyers and others have extolled these eight documents as the linchpin in the national case against the tobacco industry. However, it should now be evident that such rhetoric was simply more of their now-familiar sound-bite litigation," Little said.
- A judicial official in Florida has found evidence that the tobacco industry's trade organization, the Tobacco Institute, used a national antismoking program for youth to conceal a hidden agenda to target more teenage smokers. . . But in a three-and-a-half-page recommendation signed last Friday, special master R. William Rutter found that in a majority of cases the institute's lawyers were working in "lobbying, public relations and general business activities," not giving legal advice. And in 28 documents among the hundreds that he reviewed, Mr. Rutter recommended voiding the privilege because he found "sufficient evidence" of crime or fraud. . . A lawyer at Covington & Burling said the firm plans to contest Mr. Rutter's findings before Judge Cohen next week. Shook Hardy declined to comment. Mr. Rutter's opinion is believed to be the first to address possible fraud by the Tobacco Institute. In a statement, the Institute said that it stood behind its Youth Programs, a public-relations blitz launched in the early 1980s to deter teen smoking. The campaign involved television ads and the mass distribution of antismoking booklets and leaflets with such messages as "Helping Youth Decide" and "Helping Youths to Say No," said spokesman Walker Merryman.
- The eight documents from the Liggett Group, the maker of Lark and L&M cigarettes, include attorney memorandums on how to defend the industry against charges of misconduct, and show how cigarette makers plotted to manipulate data and shape public opinion. One document said the ingredients in cigarettes could be likened to those in a Hershey bar. The documents, totaling more than 80 pages, were made public after the tobacco industry exhausted all appeals to keep them private.
- "Should the results of the survey prove unfavorable, they may be subpoenaed or otherwise fall into the hands of the FTC, a Congressional Committee, or a plaintiff in pending cancer litigation ... In any event, if the returns were unfavorable they could be destroyed and there would be no record in any office of the nature of the returns." "If the returns on a particular question are unfavorable but the survey otherwise is favorable, it will be necessary either not to use the survey or to use the unfavorable data as well. "In the attached draft questionnaire, we have tried to avoid that problem by avoiding unnecessary questions which might elicit answers harmful to us. The questionnaire has been revised to eliminate questions that might upset an otherwise favorable return."
- "What these documents we hope will tell us is something about just how the industry was using lawyers to hide documents," Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth said after the Fourth District Court of Appeal issued its ruling. In a related decision, a special master found the Tobacco Institute, the industry's lobbying and public relations arm, also used attorneys to hide information on smoking's dangers and plans to target young people.
- Gregory G. Little . . . said the documents show "nothing more than conscientious lawyers offering legal advice on legal issues." . . In a related decision also released Tuesday, a "special master" -- a person appointed by a court to make findings on special questions -- concluded that the Tobacco Institute, the industry's lobbying and public relations arm, used attorneys to hide information on smoking's dangers and industry plans to target young people. In his report, attorney R. William Rutter Jr. said the documents showed the Tobacco Institute "sought to create a public perception of not wanting youth to smoke" in order to obtain a public relations benefit and "prevent or delay further regulation of the tobacco industry." Rutter included six brief excerpts. One internal document from a cigarette maker said "the base of our business is the high school student." Another said: "The smoking patterns of teen-agers are particularly important to Philip Morris."
- Tobacco companies need to be allowed to argue issues of "common knowledge" about the dangers of cigarette smoking in order to properly defend themselves against Florida's Medicaid lawsuit, tobacco lawyers told a Florida judge on Wednesday.
- Tobacco companies have relinquished eight internal documents that their critics have pursued for years, offering a glimpse inside the secretive industry and evidence of a widespread effort to manipulate the public perception of cigarettes.
- The tobacco industry quashed research on the safety of cigarettes and took a number of other steps as part of a decades-long effort to protect itself from lawsuits, newly released internal industry documents appear to show.
- Bob Butterworth, the Florida attorney general, said in an interview Wednesday that he believed elected officials should insist on seeing additional secret industry memorandums before Congress approves a settlement plan. "These documents are just the tip of the iceberg," Butterworth said.
- Chairman Bennett S. LeBow said tobacco industry documents released following a court decision represent "only a small sample" of documents Brooke's Liggett Group Inc. unit submitted for court review. In a press release Wednesday, LeBow said "there can be little doubt they represent only a tiny fraction of the documents in Big Tobacco's files." LeBow said Liggett favors full disclosure, and said the federal government "should now require Big Tobacco to meet the disclosure standard Liggett has set before any global settlement is enacted into law."
- Philip Morris said it disagrees with the court's ruling and "still firmly maintains that these documents are proper and show nothing more than the efforts of conscientious lawyers" working for their clients. R.J. Reynolds said, "These documents are the equivalent of firing 'blanks."' R.J. Reynolds also said, "The public is deprived of the context of the document as a whole, and the context of events, discussions, and issues within the contemporaneous world. Reporting about the documents without a complete and objective review will fail on both of these accounts."
- In a confidential 1986 memo, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s attorneys, anxious to keep cigarette ingredients secret, drafted a comprehensive plan to attack claims that additives contribute to smoking-related diseases.
- Tobacco critics charged Wednesday that the documents showed that lawyers not only were managing tobacco lawsuits but also were encouraging companies to ignore the public interest. The industry said the actions were perfectly straightforward and justifiable.
- The industry is continuing to fight to keep secret hundreds more documents the state hopes could show the industry specifically marketed to teenagers and concealed the dangers of smoking. . . The state says there is no protection if the documents show the attorneys were engaging in criminal fraud. "We have a faucet going," Michael Mayer, an attorney for the state, said of the motions pending to release thousands of pages of secret documents.
- "Why anyone would release (to the public) documents prepared when many of us were still in kindgergarten is appalling and totally inappropriate," said attorney Justus Reid, who is defending Lorillard . . . "The whole issue of relevance has yet to be presented to the court," Reid said . . .
- R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Wednesday sought to exclude anyone who may believe they or a relative had suffered harm as a result of smoking from the jury that will hear Florida's $1-billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry. A verdict rendered by a jury that included such a person "would be tainted not only legally, but forever would be subject to criticism," Reynolds attorney Robert Weber told Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold Cohen. Weber said anyone who fit the profile of a member of the class in a Miami class-action lawsuit known as Engle v R.J. Reynolds should be excluded from the jury that will hear Florida's Medicaid laws
- The handwritten, undated document, believed to have been written in the 1970s, will be presented as evidence at the trial, said Ron Motley, an attorney representing Florida in the lawsuit to recover the Medicaid costs of treating sick smokers. The two-page memo - from the files of the British American Tobacco Co., an affiliate of Brown and Williamson - is titled Project Kestrel. It describes the creation of a cigarette brand that "'breaks the rules' to appeal to a new generation and shock their parents to make conventional brands look bland and weary," according to The Palm Beach Post and USA Today. The unsigned document describes discussions about the taste of the cigarette, including possible "nicotine enhancement" and packaging. No explanation was given for the name "kestrel," a small bird of prey that feeds upon rodents and other birds. "It shows the contemplation of doing an illegal act - manufacturing and designing cigarettes with boosted nicotine for kids," Motley told USA Today.
- "This case will be tried on evidence and not on media sound bites."
- A Florida judge on Thursday ordered the state's lawyers not to refer to executives, witnesses or lawyers for tobacco companies as members of the "Mafia, Nazis, liars or perjurors." Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold Cohen took the action at the end of a contentious hearing of pretrial motions . . . Cohen also ordered Florida lawyers to avoid referring to attorneys for the tobacco companies as "consiglieri," or Mafia counselors, during their questioning of potential jurors or in opening arguments of a trial that Cohen has called the "mother of all RICO (racketeering) cases" in Florida or any state.
- A Florida judge presiding over the state's $1 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry said on Friday that cigarette makers will be allowed to present evidence that their advertising did not mislead the public about the dangers of smoking. Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold Cohen also said the tobacco companies may introduce documents or direct testimony from corporate executives to show there never was any intent to mislead anyone about the hazards of smoking. . .David Bernick, who represents the British American Tobacco Co., said defense attorneys were "grateful that the court recognized ... we had the right to demonstrate that we had no criminal intent." Michael Maher, one of Florida's attorneys, said the ruling was "a strong decision in the state's favor" because it could bring tobacco company executives to the witness stand. "It forces the defendants to bring their executives who made the decision to court to explain why and how they made their decisions," he said.
- "Whatever out-of-context nugget has been dragged up from the past, BAT has never and will never target under-age smokers." Florida state lawyers say BAT's proposal was code-named Project Kestrel and included suggestions for rolling the cigarettes in coloured paper and packaging them in black boxes because, the memo says: "The youth of today tend to associate with the colour black." . . "I don't think it was proposed anywhere. I don't know if this came from somebody outside the company and just ended up in their files." Analysts cast doubt on the validity of the memo because it is undated and unsigned.
- Develop a product that would encourage rebellion in youths, give it a "Coca-Cola kick," dress it up in flashy packaging and make it so foul-tasting that young smokers would find it cool. That is the strategy boldly outlined in a two-page, handwritten memo that attorneys for the state say succinctly highlights the tobacco industry's hidden conspiracy to hook children on cigarettes. For now, Florida attorneys are using the unsigned, undated missive as an exhibit in their plea to get a judge to unlock dozens of documents tobacco companies are trying to keep sealed under attorney-client privilege.
- The document describes a discussion about adding flavor to the cigarette that would "probably be abhorrent to Mr. Average Smoker" but "appeal to the younger generation." Two flavors discussed were root beer and fruit juice.
- [T]he law allows attorneys on either side of Florida's pending case against the tobacco industry plenty of room to do things that many would consider an invasion of privacy. . . And while many lawyers publicly loathe such tactics, some fear the stakes of this trial could make them more tempting than usual. . . Pre-trial investigations, whether they involve mock trials or digging up information on prospective jurors, are no different from the market surveys done by any other industry, Natale said. "It's not like you're tampering," he said. "There is no voodoo here. It's not like you're sprinkling fairy dust. All you want to know is whether someone is going to give you a fair shake."
- Robert Montgomery, one of a battery of lawyers representing Florida, told a group of potential jurors the state would seek $1.3 billion in compensation for Medicaid costs and $11 billion to punish the tobacco companies. The punitive damages would "send a message to the tobacco companies or anyone else that this conduct will not be tolerated," Montgomery said as he began questioning the first of four groups of potential jurors.
- Attorneys for cigarette makers on Friday won an unusual bid to disassociate themselves from the law firms that employ them -- at least in front of jurors who will hear the state's $1 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry. The state is accusing a host of national law firms of conspiring with tobacco companies to deceive the public about the harms of smoking, and several of those firms have assigned attorneys to represent the industry in Florida's case. To name those law firms and then connect them with the attorneys in the courtroom could irreparably prejudice jurors against the lawyers, and therefore, their clients, tobacco attorneys argued on Friday. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold Cohen agreed, barring the state's attorneys from making any such links for jurors. . . "Most lawyers are proud of their law firms, and most law firms are proud of their lawyers," said Andy Berly, an attorney for the state. "But not in the world of tobacco. They are so embarrassed, so ashamed, that they file a motion. That's just bizarre," Berly said.
- Tobacco attorneys nibbled around the edges of this research in pretrial motions. But Cohen insists that the trial focus on state costs is more readily documented. . . Tobacco companies are rightfully skittish about playing a card that portrays smoking as an economic benefit. . .For the industry to reverse field and maintain that the hazards of smoking not only exist but are good for taxpayers' pockets would be bizarre, experts said. "It puts the industry between a rock and a hard place," said Wasserman, the RAND analyst. "To effectively argue that cigarettes save money, tobacco companies have to acknowledge their products kill people.
- Attorneys for cigarette makers won the right to offer evidence that the industry did not try to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. Circuit Judge Harold Cohen ruled Friday that attorneys for cigarette makers can argue the industry "believed that the public was fully aware of the risks of smoking because the information out in the general circulation ... informed them to the risk."
- William Rutter . . . said Bible would be questioned in a pretrial hearing at 8 a.m. EDT on Thursday in Rutter's office. . . Rutter agreed Tuesday to moderate the three-hour videotaped questioning at the request of the tobacco companies' attorneys. Attorney Steve Lockman, representing Philip Morris, said Rutter's presence was needed to prevent the "ugly ... and humiliating" way James Morgan, CEO of Philip Morris Inc., the company's subsidiary, was treated during his five-hour deposition in New York last month.
- "I was raised to believe that I am responsible for my own actions," said a woman who quit smoking more than 12 years ago. "When I started smoking at 19, the warning label was already on there. I don't necessarily support punishment of organizations for decisions made by individuals." It is those types of attitudes and comments the attorneys are trying to elicit from the prospective jurors to determine if they could be fair and impartial in deciding the case.
- In his first crack at interviewing the jurors, Montgomery raised the issue of punitive damages to see whether the figure was offensive to some of the panelists. None said it was, though one juror, a school teacher, said she was disturbed by the idea of giving the state money without knowing first how it would be spent. Another said she was bothered by the whole concept of punitive damages.
- Attorneys for Philip Morris Cos. Inc. on Monday sought a protective order to prevent lawyers for Florida state from subjecting the tobacco and food giant's CEO, Geoffrey Bible, to "rude and insulting treatment" during questioning. In a motion filed on Monday afternoon, the attorneys said they wanted the order to cover an emergency hearing scheduled before Special Master William Rutter. They want Bible to be questioned before Rutter at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) on Tuesday. . . Philip Morris attorney Stephen Krigbaum based his request on what he called the "improper" treatment given to James Morgan, chief executive officer of Philip Morris Inc., the company's subsidiary, in New York on July 31. "Plaintiffs' counsels (Florida's attorneys) in that deposition were deplorable. . . "
- A Florida judge Wednesday ordered a tobacco company attorney to find another place to stay when attorneys handling Florida's billion-dollar lawsuit against the industry complained she could be a spy. During the same hearing, Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold Cohen ordered Florida attorneys to steer clear of mentioning the industry's alleged conduct in lobbying the Florida legislature not to pass bills unfavorable to the cigarette industry. The spying allegation highlighted growing tensions between lawyers for the two sides . . . Cohen took the unusual move of telling Monica Medina, a lawyer representing tiny Dosal Tobacco Co., to find a different place to stay when W. C. Gentry, one of Florida's attorneys, complained "there is a spy in our midst" at the Brazilian Court Hotel, where the state legal team has its headquarters. . . Medina told Cohen that her paralegal made the reservation not knowing the Brazlian Court was state turf. The Breakers Hotel, where industry lawyers were temporarily headquartered, was full.
- Philip Morris made an emergency request for supervision of the deposition of Geoffrey Bible, the chief executive officer, after claiming the state was out of line in its questioning last month of James Morgan, CEO of Philip Morris USA. "It was an ugly deposition," Philip Morris attorney Steven Lockman told special master R. William Rutter during a hearing Tuesday. "It was humiliating. I found it difficult to be there at times."
- How, a few jurors would like to know, would the state spend the $12.3 billion in damages it is seeking from cigarette makers if jurors decide to award it. They were told on Monday by an attorney representing the state that they cannot consider that issue in deliberating the case -- that it's irrelevant. But the question emerged again on Tuesday, when Peter Bleakley, an attorney for the tobacco industry, said any damages awarded in the case could be dumped into the state's general treasury fund. He hinted that the money might never be used to repay Medicaid costs for smoking-related illnesses.
- The remarks from Geoffrey Bible and Steven Goldstone have been touted as monumental concessions. But others say they were made to put the tobacco industry in a better light as Congress considers a $368 billion settlement between 40 states and the industry. "These guys are under oath, there's just so far you can go," said Jim Tierney, the former attorney general of Maine who led the coalition of states suing the industry. "The bottom line is the truth is coming out."
- "But if a country doesn't require warning, Mr. Goldstone, would it be your intention in the future to let those people have the benefit of the knowledge that smoking carries risks to human health?" Motley asked. "Yes," Goldstone said. Goldstone also said that addiction to anything robs people of true choice "under the orthodox medical definitions" of addiction.
- "I have always believed, rightly or wrongly, I have always believed that smoking plays a part in causing lung cancer. What that role is, I don't know, but I do believe it" . . . Goldstone said in the deposition that he was aware of a statement issued by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to some 300 newspapers in 1954. In it, the company promised to "cooperate fully with public health officials in regard to smoking and human disease." Asked by Motley if public health was still a top consideration at R.J. Reynolds, Goldstone replied, "I think when you sell a product like cigarettes, public health has got to be a paramount concern, definitely."
- Steven F. Goldstone, chairman and chief executive of RJR Nabisco, was scheduled to give his deposition Friday as Florida prepares for its $12.3 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry for the public cost of smoking-related illnesses. Goldstone was to face many of the same questions as Bible, such as whether advertising targeted new smokers or whether smoking causes fatal illnesses. He also was expected to be asked questions specifically related to RJR, which makes Winston and Camel cigarettes and Oreo cookies. Goldstone took part in talks resulting in a $368 billion settlement now being considered by Congress that would wipe out most lawsuits against the industry.
- The chief executive officer of Phillip Morris says he would shut down operations if it was proved to him tobacco caused lung cancer. Ron Motley, who took the deposition from Geoffrey Bible for the Florida Attorney General's office, said that was the first time he's heard that kind of a promise from a tobacco executive and considered it as a positive sign. He said Bible said he would only reopen the operation if a way could be found to do it without a threat of cancer.
- Motley asked Bible: "Would Philip Morris agree that a single American citizen who smokes their products for 30 or more years, a single one, has ever died of a disease caused in part by smoking cigarettes?" Bible answered, "I think there's a fair chance that one would have, might have." Motley followed up, "How about a thousand?" Bible said, "Might have." Motley pressed, "How about 100,000?" Bible responded, "Might have." "I salute Philip Morris for the first time in 40 years being forthright and candid," Motley said on CNN afterward. "It's a very public, health-spirited way of looking at things."
- "Based on the information we have received, we don't think it should have any impact on our review of the proposed national settlement," White House spokesman Barry Toiv said
- It's irritating that now some legislators, who fought the law that made this settlement possible, seem to expect the tobacco-settlement money will fall into their laps.
- To which I answer to all three hypothetical questions, one reality-based word: Addiction. Unlike milk or meat, tobacco contains a proven addictive substance, nicotine. If you're tempted to see a parallel between tobacco and alcohol use, consider that most people can be social drinkers and never turn intoalcoholics.
- Here¹s a primer on how the Florida settlement fits into the tobacco-litigation jigsaw puzzle.
- The settlement, which calls for the removal of tobacco advertising at all sports arenas, could create seismic changes in racing, depending on how strictly it is interpreted. Will Philip Morris' Marlboro brand be allowed to sponsor the Marlboro Grand Prix of Miami Indy car race as long as it doesn't appear on public placards? Will RJR Nabisco's Winston brand continue to sponsor the granddaddy of all stock car circuits, NASCAR's Winston Cup at Daytona International Speedway? And what will become of race cars, those "rolling billboards," featuring cigarette ads?
- "To some extent, yes," Butterworth told Reuters when asked if a proposed national pact announced in June would supersede the $11.3 billion state settlement if the national agreement was approved by Congress and signed by the president. But he said Florida would retain upfront money to be paid by tobacco companies and measures such as the industry's agreement to remove advertising billboards from the state. "For the state of Florida, it will have very little impact," he said, referring to the national settlement.
- "They don't want the facts explored by a jury," Doyle said. "They are fearful of what a jury will do." Wisconsin's chance of winning its legal battle is very good because of the tobacco companies' reluctance to go to trial, he said. "This is a very major deal," Doyle said. "Florida was ready to go to trial -- and it is clear that these tobacco companies really do not want these cases to go to trial."
- Gov. Lawton Chiles flew to West Palm Beach on Sunday, ready to sign off on a historic settlement with the tobacco industry, when cigarette lawyers threw up a last-minute roadblock. They demanded that Chiles accept less than the $11.3 billion called for in the agreement with Florida if the national settlement ends up paying less to Florida. But Chiles refused to blink. He told the tobacco lawyers sitting across the table from him at the attorney general's West Palm Beach office that if they didn't drop the issue, the state would go to trial as planned.
- It also seemed intended to persuade people who oppose the national agreement . . . to reconsider. . . "You have 48 states out there who don't have the money and don't have the billboard restrictions and don't have the [antismoking] campaigns. They will be clamoring very loudly to get those things, and the only way to get them is the national settlement."
- "Without question, it makes a national settlement easier," said David Adelman, a tobacco-industry analyst with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Discover. The Florida agreement resolves the tobacco industry's toughest case, analysts said. Florida's legislature had enacted a special law that enabled the lawsuit to proceed and blocked the industry's traditional defense: That smokers knew the health risks of cigarettes.
- LAWYERS representing the state of Florida will be among the main beneficiaries of yesterday's settlement, with some predicting they could earn hundreds of millions of dollars. Florida's state attorney-general, Bob Butterworth, secured the help of a prominent lawyer from South Carolina, Ron Motley.
- In Florida, tobacco producers soon will begin to tear down cigarette advertising billboards, pay for anti-smoking campaigns, remove vending machines from places accessible to children and stop advertising at sports events and on buses and trains. . . The concessions won by Florida also will affect Mississippi, which in June became the first state to settle a smoking-related case against cigarette producers. Thirty-seven states, including Minnesota, have not reached settlements. Mississippi's agreement involved only cash -- a $3.3 billion payment from tobacco companies, reflecting Mississippi's smaller population -- but also gave the state the benefit of any concessions made by the companies in a deal with any other state.
- "The tobacco industry has conceded defeat and we have a settlement of historic proportions," Gov. Lawton Chiles told a news conference after signing the settlement with industry lawyers in a West Palm Beach, Fla., courtroom. "Florida's victory today truly is a win for all of our people. Most of all it's a victory for our children and their future. The victory is the straw that broke Joe Camel's back," he said.
- Haggling and horse-trading in Monday's $11.3 billion settlement between Florida and U.S. tobacco firms went down to the wire, with the last comma -- literally -- agreed just minutes before the deal's noon signing, officials said. "We ended up making the last change at 11:30 a.m. EDT" Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth said. "It was a comma."
- Moore told Reuters in a telephone interview that language in his state's settlement with the industry provides that any new concessions contained in subsequent settlements with other states would also go to Mississippi.
- The big losers Monday - apart from the tobacco industry itself - were Sen. George Kirkpatrick, D-Gainesville, and Harry Goode, D-Melbourne, who sponsored the repeal legislation that would have undercut the suit. Opponents (and voters) can now put a price tag on what their success might have cost. How do you suppose $11.3-billion would sound?
- By Friday evening, both sides had agreed to the major details of the deal, with only a few minor issues left. When those were presented to the governor, Herrle told The Associated Press that "he basically said it's my way or the highway."
- The state will receive one payment "up front" with the rest to be paid out over 25 years, Herrle said. .. Besides money, the industry must also make public about 400 confidential documents still being reviewed by judges in Florida's case, Herrle said. Most important to the governor, the industry will agree to stiff restrictions on billboard advertising. Ron Motley, another of the state's lead attorneys, said he was stunned by the announcement of the settlement, negotiated by Chiles, state Attorney General Bob Butterworth and one of Motley's law partners. "I had no idea until tonight," Motley said. "They hid it from me."
- Today's settlement with the State of Florida addresses the financial issues in Florida and is a concrete demonstration that the industry is prepared to cooperate with government and the public health authorities to emphasize that it does not want kids to smoke. The settlement, however, cannot affect the comprehensive array of public health provisions contained in the proposed national settlement which addresses all of the issues involving the regulation and sale of, and liability for, tobacco. The Florida agreement, like the Mississippi settlement, will be largely superseded by the June 20th, 1997 comprehensive resolution, if enacted by the Congress and signed by the President.
- H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute Director and Thoracic Oncologist John C. Ruckdeschel, M.D., said "The more we're able to reduce cigarette smoking, the better. The settlement's reimbursement of medical costs is exciting, but I'm also interested in its ability to help reimburse research, early detection and treatment."
- "Today's announcement should encourage states with pending cases against tobacco companies to seek at least similar terms, and encourage Congress and the White House to enact a meaningful national tobacco control policy," said Linda Hay Crawford
- Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) will be urging the Florida Legislature to repeal the Medicaid Third-Party Liability Act at its earliest opportunity. This could be as early as the Special Session on Education later this year.
- Florida's $11 billion tobacco settlement does more for cigarette makers than end a troublesome lawsuit: It averts the specter of damaging headlines from Florida courts just as Congress takes up the broader national tobacco deal next month.
- The $11.3 billion settlement Florida reached with Big Tobacco on Monday includes some of the toughest prohibitions on advertising and marketing to children, yet gives the industry some breathing room not to be found in the proposed national deal. Some critics contend the state's landmark pact highlights the need for Congress to approve the $368 billion national pact so the federal government can regulate nicotine and set penalties for failing to clamp down on smoking by children. Others, however, suggest Florida has shown individual states can earn more on their own than as part of a national deal, which would supersede Florida's deal if approved. Public health advocates said the deal was limited and might actually set back the effort to secure a tougher, national settlement that would cost cigarette makers more money and force them to do more to cut teen-age smoking. "The real way to stop smoking is to make cigarettes more expensive, and this just doesn't do it," said Joseph Califano, who fought smoking in the late 1970s as U.S. secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. Adding $2 per pack could cut teen-age smoking by 70 percent, he said, "but this only adds a few cents."
- "Clearly the Florida deal provides support for the national settlement still being worked out" by Congress, a trader said. "These bonds are just starting to experience a long-overdue correction."
- "If I had my druthers, I know how I would like to spend all of the money," said Chiles, who has made children's initiatives the centerpiece of his administration. But the Democratic governor acknowledged that if the state puts some of the tobacco money into health-care and substance-abuse programs it could free up money already being spent in those areas. The freed-up money could be used for other state needs, including school construction . . . "I would suggest the best thing to do is for us to sit down together and see how we can make this a win-win situation," Chiles said. Chiles' conciliatory remarks were welcomed by Republican legislative leaders, who were vigorously asserting that the Legislature and not the governor was the ultimate authority on how to spend state funds.
- Gov. Lawton Chiles kicked off a campaign Wednesday to choose some of the first billboards that will be pulled down under the state's $11.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. He said the Camel sign will be one of the first to go. "This Camel advertising is too close to Nims Middle School," Chiles said. "It wouldn't technically be within 1,000 feet of a school, but we know all the kids have to traverse this and come by this."
- Two days after winning the tobacco lottery, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles launched a counteroffensive Wednesday against state political leaders who want to raid the $11.3 billion windfall for pet projects.
- Education Commissioner Frank Brogan started the feeding frenzy by calling for a big chunk to ease the state's school crowding crisis. . . Other politicians followed suit, fueling a raging debate in the capital over who gets the money -- and more importantly, who gets to make those decisions.
- Republican leaders say they have the solution to Florida's school crowding problem: Pay for new classrooms by siphoning $300 million a year from the $11.3 billion "windfall" the state will collect from the tobacco industry. . . But Gov. Lawton Chiles . . . insists the money is meant for health care and children -- treating sick smokers, warning youths away from cigarettes and improving health care for Florida's young. His aides denounced Brogan's proposal. Lawmakers "like shell games," said April Herrle, Chiles' director of communications. "They're saying, `Let's steal from the children to help children.' The governor will oppose any effort like that."
- Florida's landmark tobacco settlement has spawned a brouhaha over legal fees -- with the state's Dream Team of lawyers suddenly facing a billion-dollar nightmare. The army of powerful private attorneys representing Florida in its lawsuit against cigarette makers were crying foul on Thursday over terms of the $11.3 billion deal, which says they are entitled to "reasonable" fees, to be paid by the tobacco industry. The attorneys want 25 percent -- an amount state officials agreed to pay in a 1995 contract. "If they're trying to change my fee, they're going to find out they kicked the wrong dog," said Bob Montgomery, a West Palm Beach attorney, whose law firm is among a dozen that represented the state in the tobacco fight.
- Philip Morris Cos. initial share of the tobacco industry's settlement of health-related lawsuits with Florida will be $371 million, Loews Corp.'s Lorillard cigarette unit will pay $41 million and RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. will pay $40 million. The money is due Sept. 15 and is part of the industry's first $550 million payment, the companies said in regulatory filings last week.
- [I]t's unclear how much the marketing restrictions and anti-tobacco campaigns contained in the deal can do to keep kids off cigarettes. The tobacco industry has long said advertising does not generate new smokers. But health groups say the removal of outdoor advertising and restrictions on vending machines, coupled with anti-smoking messages, are good first steps to cutting down on the number of young people who light up. "If we start to even come close to the number of times they hear our message compared to the number of times they hear the tobacco industry's message, maybe we can start to make a difference," said Andrew Cuddihy,. . .
- 9/11/97 Lawyers Battle for Tobacco Share AP Washington Post
- 9/11/97 FLORIDA Judge Gives Lawyers 30 Days to Settle Fee Dispute Reuters
- 9/11/97 New Argument from Ashes of Tobacco Suit Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
- 9/11/97 Lawyers' Tobacco Fee Fight Turns Bitter AP/Miami Herald
- 9/10/97 Fee Dispute in FLORIDA Case Gets Testy *Fees 'enough to choke a horse. *Lawyers bicker in the courtroom. *Companies waiting for smoke to clear. CNN
- 9/10/97 FLORIDA: Tobacco Judge Asked to Step Down in Fee Dispute Reuters
- The lead attorney in Florida's landmark lawsuit against the tobacco industry on Wednesday asked Circuit Judge Harold Cohen to step aside and let another judge decide how the state's lawyers should be paid. Robert Montgomery, the lawyer who asembled the private legal team that won Florida an $11.3 billion settlement, said he planned to call Cohen as a witness in the fee dispute between the state and some of Montgomery's team. Montgomery alleged that Cohen had information concerning the replacement of the lawyers' original contract with an agreement to arbitrate fees with the tobacco companies involved in the settlement.
- The lawyers say their 13-member team is entitled to about $1.4 billion in fees, or 25% of the approximate $5 billion present value of the settlement. The settlement's total value is $11.3 billion because it is to be paid over 25 years. The dispute has dispelled the camaraderie between the state and its outside lawyers, who sued the industry three years ago to recover the state's public-health care costs linked to smoking. Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth said the fee request is "enough to choke a horse."
- Attorneys representing Florida in its legal pursuit of Big Tobacco on Friday fought for the release of scores of internal industry documents that could arm states across the country with fresh ammunition. The attorneys said the documents could counter the industry's claims that they do not market their wares to children. Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold J. Cohen reserved ruling on the documents for 30 days.
- Although the civil case against the tobacco industry has been settled, state attorneys fought again Friday for the release of documents they say show that cigarette makers target children. . . . But a special master appointed by the judge to oversee the day-to-day operations of the case has reviewed the documents privately and recommended 312 should be made public. He says these papers show evidence of criminal fraud or do not fall under attorney-client privilege. He said the other 46 documents should not be made public.
- A Florida judge said Friday he felt no pressure to rule quickly on releasing industry documents that allegedly show cigarette makers targeted teen-agers as customers. But Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold Cohen also said he may be barred from issuing a decision because of a dispute over legal fees arising from Florida's $11.3 billion settlement with cigarette makers.
- A Florida judge will hear arguments Friday on whether he should make public more than 200 Tobacco Institute documents related to youth smoking, an issue left unresolved in Florida's settlement of its Medicaid suit against the industry. William Rutter, a former judge who is serving as a special master handling motion on evidence in the suit, has recommended that Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge William Cohen make the documents public. It was not clear whether Cohen would rule during Friday's hearing. In making the recommendation, Rutter said the documents contain evidence of possibly fraudulent activity between attorneys and their tobacco company clients.
- With a 5.45 percent interest rate, the money, wired into two NationsBank escrow accounts by five tobacco companies, will earn an estimated $113,541 per day, $3.4 million per month or $40.8 million per year. "Today is the first of many paydays for our people from the historic settlement," Gov. Lawton Chiles said. "But, while money is important, no amount will ever replace the lives and repair the families destroyed by tobacco illness. These dollars are important to me because they'll provide us with the dollars to break tobacco's deadly cycle and reach out to kids to ensure they'll never light up."
- Cigarette makers handed $750 million to Florida Monday, a down payment on a landmark lawsuit settlement that will cost the industry $11.3 billion through 2022. All of the $750 million -- the biggest payment yet by Big Tobacco to settle anti-smoking lawsuits -- was wired into two escrow accounts by five companies named in the settlement.
- The federal government pays 55 cents of every dollar spent on Medicaid. Butterworth told a state House budget panel that Washington is "doing all they can" to take 55 percent of the settlement as its fair share of Medicaid expenses. But he added, "We say, you're not going to get it." . . . Butterworth says, "In a worst-case scenario the federal government could come in to get the 55 percent. The best-case scenario is to completely keep the money in the state of Florida." However, the attorney general said he believes Florida and Washington eventually will settle on a compromise amount.
- West Palm Beach attorney Bob Montgomery, a leader of the state's tobacco trial team, said on Thursday that he will ask a judge to lift a temporary delay in court debate over attorneys' fees. Montgomery said he has not heard from the state, despite Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold J. Cohen's urging last week for the two sides to negotiate. Montgomery said he wants to begin investigating how an $11.3 billion settlement negotiated by state representatives apparently trumped a contract the state's trial team signed with the state. He wants to begin by taking depositions from Gov. Lawton Chiles and Attorney General Bob Butterworth. "I want to find out what this is all about and why I wasn't there," Montgomery said.
- The state and the estranged members of its anti-tobacco "Dream Team" can't even agree on which drawing table they should go back to. Earlier this month, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Cohen ordered a 30-day "cooling off" period in Florida's quarrel with a faction of its prosecution team over attorneys' fees. But tempers flared anyway on Monday as a highly anticipated negotiating session became a "non-event," according to West Palm Beach attorney Bob Montgomery, who stormed out after 15 minutes. "I went in and . . . asked them, 'Am I going to get my money?' " said Montgomery, the leader of Florida's legal team. "They said to get it from the tobacco companies."
- RELATIONS WITHIN Florida's Dream Team--the collection of star plaintiffs' lawyers who wrestled $11.3 billion from the tobacco industry in an historic settlement--have turned nightmarish. A dispute over millions of dollars in attorney fees among the 11 firms retained by the state in its Medicaid reimbursement lawsuit has held up the first $750 million installment of the industry's payment to the state. And lawyers who believe they were shut out of fees they are due by contract have raised questions about the conduct of their one-time allies.
- The tobacco industry's $22 million payment to the state today cannot be held up by a dispute over attorneys' fees, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Cohen ruled on Monday. . . Cohen ruled that only the portion of the $22 million due to the lawyers who have filed liens will be placed into an escrow account.
- Attorneys involved in the state's $11 billion settlement with cigarette makers met peacefully for eight hours Friday to try to resolve a heated dispute over attorneys' fees. No resolution was reached, but the length of the confidential discussions was significant since an attempt at bargaining last week ended with curse words and a walkout after 13 minutes. The difference Friday? Former Palm Beach Chief Circuit Court Judge William Rutter served as a court-appointed referee.
- The Tobacco Institute, the industry's public-relations arm, continued its legal fight yesterday to keep secret hundreds of documents that the state says could show cigarette-makers target kids. The institute asked the 4th District Court of Appeal to overturn a ruling by Judge Harold Cohen of Palm Beach County Circuit Court that would have made public 312 of the 358 documents related to the institute's youth programs. . . Florida settled its lawsuit with the industry for $11 billion in August. However, part of the deal allows the state to keep fighting for documents it had already begun to seek. The documents, if released, could be used by the 40 other states suing the industry. "They appear to be very important child-targeting documents," said W.C. Gentry, a lawyer in Jacksonville.
- An all-day mediation session between state representatives and Florida's estranged anti-tobacco attorneys ended on Wednesday with "little if any progress," said Bob Montgomery, a leader of the state's trial team.
- Florida on Tuesday asked a court to allow an arbitration panel to determine how much it should pay attorneys who helped negotiate the $11.3 billion settlement of its Medicaid suit against big tobacco companies.
- A state senator said Wednesday he'll seek to subpoena a former top aide to Gov. Lawton Chiles who has refused to testify at a committee meeting next week on Florida's $11 billion tobacco settlement.
- Harold Lewis . . . now may face a subpoena that would force him to appear at the Jan. 6 meeting. Lewis' attorney, Robert Harper, "respectfully declined" the invitation in a one-sentence letter to state Sen. Charlie Crist, the ethics committee's chairman.
- Sandra Mortham did nothing wrong, her inspector general says. But an outside audit of her expenditures is pending. A report issued Monday by Secretary of State Sandra Mortham's inspector general defends Mortham's use of museum charity money for cuff links, political placards and employee parties. . . The bulk of the purchases were made with $60,000 solicited by Mortham from tobacco giant Philip Morris while the state was embroiled in a lawsuit against tobacco companies.
- Bob Montgomery, the Palm Beach lawyer who rolled the state's dice against Big Tobacco, came to the Capitol Tuesday like a big-time gambler looking for millions of dollars he believes he is owed. "Pay me my money," Montgomery said Tuesday, testifying under oath before a Senate committee investigating the secretive dealing behind Florida's $11.3 billion, 25-year settlement with the nation's tobacco makers.
- Palm Beach lawyer Bob Montgomery, the state's lead attorney in its battle with cigarette makers, on Tuesday added his name to the long list of people approached for a loan by a former top aide to Gov. Lawton Chiles. In wide-ranging testimony before a Senate committee, Montgomery said he and fellow attorney Sheldon Schlesinger of Fort Lauderdale were asked for a $15,000 loan by Inspector General Harold Lewis, Chiles' point man in the tobacco case. The two lawyers refused the request. Montgomery testified that when Schlesinger said such a loan "doesn't look right," he replied, "I'm with you."
- The judge overseeing Florida's $11 billion tobacco settlement Thursday ordered attorneys into arbitration over their fees -- a move opposed by cigarette makers who want to wait for a global deal. "It may set some precedent on the national level," Circuit Judge Harold Cohen told the bickering lawyers. "I think you need to get in there. I think you need to get this done."
- ``It's usually the accusation that the courts are slowing everything down,'' Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold Cohen told Butterworth. ``Here, I'm trying to say, why won't you just take what you're entitled to and use it?'' Butterworth was in court Friday to request only $57 million for use in children's programs. He said lawmakers have big designs on the other tobacco settlement funds now sitting in escrow, but that money had not yet been appropriated. ``I'm trying to hold [lawmakers] in reign from trying to spend more than they're going to get,'' said Butterworth, who conceded the money would earn 1 percent more interest in the state treasury than in the current account.
- The state filed an emergency request Tuesday seeking the release of $57 million held in escrow from the state's tobacco settlement for use in anti-smoking programs for children. "Time is now of the essence in obtaining access to these funds to begin the massive expansion of the children's programs they represent, during a period that the Legislature is available to appropriate these funds," according to the motion filed in Palm Beach Circuit Court.
- Chris Larmoyeux, the law partner of West Palm Beach attorney Bob Montgomery, took the deposition of Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Cohen in open court. The deposition, open to reporters because none of the parties objected to their presence, was part of Montgomery's lawsuit alleging that the final settlement of the tobacco lawsuit jilted the state's private team of attorneys who brought the case to tr
- Circuit Judge Harold Cohen ordered the state government, America's top cigarette makers and the private lawyers who represented Florida in the case settled last August to hammer out a fees deal within 30 days, lawyers said.
- Judge Harold Cohen overrode the objections of lawyers who are seeking a 25 percent cut of the settlement -- as well as tobacco lawyers who want the fee question halted -- when he sent the issue to a three-person panel.
- One of three state officials who signed the contract giving lawyers suing the tobacco industry 25 percent of any settlement told a Senate committee on Wednesday he never read the document. "I was under the impression I was to sign it as a formality," said Doug Cook, director of the Agency for Health Care Administration. "I glanced through it [but) I did not read it."
- The judge overseeing Florida's $11 billion tobacco settlement Thursday ordered attorneys into arbitration over their fees -- a move opposed by cigarette makers who want to wait for a global deal. "It may set some precedent on the national level," Circuit Judge Harold Cohen told the bickering lawyers. "I think you need to get in there. I think you need to get this done."
- "It's usually the accusation that the courts are slowing everything down," Palm Beach Circuit Judge Harold Cohen told Butterworth. "Here, I'm trying to say, why won't you just take what you're entitled to and use it?" Butterworth was in court Friday to request only $57 million for use in children's programs. He said lawmakers have big designs on the other tobacco settlement funds now sitting in escrow, but that money had not yet been appropriated. "I'm trying to hold [lawmakers] in reign from trying to spend more than they're going to get," said Butterworth, who conceded the money would earn 1 percent more interest in the state treasury than in the current account.
- The state filed an emergency request Tuesday seeking the release of $57 million held in escrow from the state's tobacco settlement for use in anti-smoking programs for children. "Time is now of the essence in obtaining access to these funds to begin the massive expansion of the children's programs they represent, during a period that the Legislature is available to appropriate these funds," according to the motion filed in Palm Beach Circuit Court.
- Chris Larmoyeux, the law partner of West Palm Beach attorney Bob Montgomery, took the deposition of Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Cohen in open court. The deposition, open to reporters because none of the parties objected to their presence, was part of Montgomery's lawsuit alleging that the final settlement of the tobacco lawsuit jilted the state's private team of attorneys who brought the case to tr
- Circuit Judge Harold Cohen ordered the state government, America's top cigarette makers and the private lawyers who represented Florida in the case settled last August to hammer out a fees deal within 30 days, lawyers said.
- Judge Harold Cohen overrode the objections of lawyers who are seeking a 25 percent cut of the settlement -- as well as tobacco lawyers who want the fee question halted -- when he sent the issue to a three-person panel.
- One of three state officials who signed the contract giving lawyers suing the tobacco industry 25 percent of any settlement told a Senate committee on Wednesday he never read the document. "I was under the impression I was to sign it as a formality," said Doug Cook, director of the Agency for Health Care Administration. "I glanced through it [but) I did not read it."
- Five months after Gov. Lawton Chiles proudly announced Florida's $11.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry, yet another legal impasse is preventing the state from spending a dime on a massive program to keep children from smoking. It's unclear when a decision on tobacco's latest legal volley will be made, or when the money -- $57 million in this installment -- will be freed up. There's even an outside chance the state may never get the money. The move has left Chiles fuming, and detractors of the settlement saying, "I told you so."
- Gov. Lawton Chiles and Attorney General Bob Butterworth must testify about secret negotiations that led to an $11.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry in August, a judge ruled Wednesday. Attorneys for the state, who oppose settlement directives that could drastically reduce their paycheck, accuse the attorney general of violating Florida's Sunshine Law during negotiations.
- State anti-smoking programs are expected to get a cash infusion from a court ruling that lifted a freeze on the first $57 million payment on Florida's settlement with tobacco companies. An appeals court freed the money Friday and state officials are hoping it will be transferred from an escrow account to state bank accounts as soon as Monday. Cigarette-makers said they were going to appeal the ruling. But state officials have designs on the first money to be received from the $11 billion settlement. First in line is a statewide campaign designed to turn kids off to smoking cigarettes.
- After five months of legal wrangling, it appeared late Friday that the state was finally going to receive tobacco money needed to launch a $200 million anti-smoking campaign aimed at children. The 4th District Court of Appeals lifted a stay on Friday that had kept the first $57 million of the money in an escrow account and out of state hands.
- [A] judge on Tuesday withdrew an earlier order to force bickering attorneys into the fee arbitration mandated by the Florida settlement. Instead, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Cohen granted motions filed by two attorneys to force lawyers in the Florida case to look at the details of the deal in Texas, where the state settled its lawsuit Jan. 15 for $15.3 billion. Florida has a most-favored-nation clause in its settlement that allows it to benefit from any state settlement that is better than its own. The judge ordered the state, private attorneys and the tobacco industry to try to reach a consensus on the portions of the Texas deal most favorable to Florida and report back to him March 6.
- A Florida judge on Tuesday ordered the release of $362.5 million of the state's $11.3 billion tobacco settlement, although he delayed transfer of the money for five days so cigarette firms can appeal, attorneys said.
- With $57 million of the settlement in hand, Chiles' office scheduled a four-day youth summit on tobacco starting March 29. The meeting will bring nearly 600 teens from all Florida counties to brainstorm on tobacco education, enforcement and marketing plans. "While we will enlist professionals in this campaign, it will not work unless kids in Florida play the most central role. This is their campaign," Chiles said in a statement.
- With Florida's tobacco settlement and strong economy pumping in extra dollars, Senate President Toni Jennings proposed Thursday to put most of the increase into schools. Unlike Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, the Republican leader said the Senate's spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1 will set aside at least $68 million for tax breaks.
- When Texas settled its lawsuit with cigarette makers last month, Florida officials didn't need to worry whether the Lone Star State got a better deal. No one can get a better deal than Florida. Or than Texas. Or than Mississippi. Among the 16 pages detailing Florida's $11 billion settlement reached in August is a provision called a "most favored nation" clause. Essentially, the clause ensures the state's deal will never pale in comparison with any other settlement that cigarette makers might reach with a government (other than the federal government). "In other words, we will always have the best deal that tobacco offered anyone," said Kim Tucker, deputy general counsel for Florida's attorney general.
- Gov. Lawton Chiles says he expected controversy over hiring private attorneys to pursue Florida's landmark lawsuit against the tobacco industry, but he wanted top legal talent. Chiles' announcement of the state's $11 billion tobacco settlement in August left a shocked "dream team" of 11 attorneys to fight over their fees. The governor, in a Feb. 6 deposition, said they did fine work and should share about $325 million, the St. Petersburg Times reported Friday.
- But the next morning, the team disintegrated. Chiles shocked the lawyers -- among them men he has known for years -- with his announcement that he was settling. And the attorneys were left to fight over their share of the state's $11.3-billion tobacco settlement. Now, in sworn testimony, Chiles says he would not have approved the settlement -- among his finest political hours -- if he had known the havoc it would wreak.
- Florida's high-powered lawyers should give thanks for the fees they stand to collect from the state's $11.3 billion tobacco settlement, not sue over them, Attorney General Bob Butterworth said on Tuesday. The settlement likely will provide lawyers with even more money than the 25 percent contingency fee some of them are demanding, because the contingency could only be applied to a small portion of the settlement money, Butterworth testified during a deposition lasting more than six hours.
- The cash that Joe Camel and his tobacco industry pals agreed to cough up in last year's $11.3 billion legal settlement with Florida is about to filter into Central Florida anti-smoking campaigns. A $1.5 million first installment should arrive in the coming weeks. To qualify, local counties must have anti-smoking coalitions in place this week to decide how to spend the money. More settlement money for the two-year anti-smoking campaign is on the way. How much and when it will arrive is unclear. Regardless, smoking opponents are giddy about spending tobacco industry dollars to get kids away from cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products.
- By Randolph Pendleton Times-Union senior writer TALLAHASSEE - State officials who will disburse $200 million from the state's tobacco suit settlement for an anti-tobacco campaign like the looks of a Jacksonville Jaguars proposal to keep kids from smoking. On the other hand, a city of Jacksonville recommendation for job training for military veterans who suffer from smoking-related illness may not pass muster. The state is getting plenty of help in planning how to spend the first installment of the $11.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. So far, 134 proposals, from anti-smoking education to picking up cigarette butts on the beach, have been received and the list is growing daily.
- An appeals court has barred Florida from going after the parent corporations of tobacco companies with allegations they participated in a conspiracy to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. B.A.T. Industries, Batus Holdings Inc. and Loews Corp. cannot be drawn into legal issues left unresolved by the state's $11 billion settlement with tobacco companies, Florida's 4th District Court of Appeal said Wednesday.
- The state and cigarette makers should each put up $50 million to pay the private attorneys who've been embroiled in a fee dispute since Florida settled its tobacco case, a judge said Friday. The state has resisted paying its own attorneys, repeatedly saying tobacco should foot the entire bill. The $100 million would be just a down payment for attorneys while arbitrators determine the entire fee. "The state gets it back, but they're going to have to pay it to get things going here," Cohen said. "The lawyers need to be paid."
- The judge in Florida's tobacco case on Friday set an April 24 hearing date to figure out exactly how much cigarette makers are supposed to pay the state based on the historic settlement reached last year. The state says the math is simple, but opposing attorneys and Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Harold Cohen say the issue needs some clarification. If Cohen retains jurisdiction over the case -- some attorneys say he should not -- he said he wants to hear all about how the $11.3 billion figure was reached.
- When Texas settled its lawsuit with cigarette makers last month, Florida officials didn't need to worry if their Lone Star state neighbors got a better deal. No one can get a better deal than Florida. Or than Texas. Or than Mississippi. Among the 16 pages detailing Florida's $11 billion settlement reached in August is a provision called a "most favored nation" clause.
- Here is the provision in Florida's Aug. 25 settlement with the tobacco industry which ensures the state always will have the best deal:
- A Republican-led panel on Wednesday failed to get answers from key players in the state's long legal battle that led to an $11.3 billion settlement with cigarette makers. Attorney General Bob Butterworth, a Democrat, refused to testify before the Senate committee, prompting panel chairman Sen. Charlie Crist to threaten to subpoena him to compel his appearance.
- The Legislature's Black Caucus, the Rainbow Coalition and the governor's former press secretary all received thousands of dollars from lawyers the state hired to fight the tobacco industry. Those are among the expenditures on a list turned over to a state Senate committee investigating the deal between Gov. Lawton Chiles and the lawyers that handled Florida's lawsuit against the nation's biggest tobacco companies.
- Hailed as a hero last summer after winning an $11 billion settlement with the tobacco industry, Gov. Lawton Chiles is now being asked lots of questions about the deal. Nearly every facet of the agreement is now being investigated. The Legislature wants answers, and last week, ABC's 20/20 dubbed the entire affair as "an old boys scam."
- Buoyed by more than $2 billion in new money from a robust economy and a landmark tobacco settlement, the House and Senate on Friday tentatively approved budget bills that boost children's health programs and public schools. . . Across the Capitol, senators spent hours debating high-speed rail funding, a North Florida river restoration and possible punishment for Attorney General Bob Butterworth for not testifying before a committee investigating the state's tobacco lawsuit.
- Bolstered by a $2 billion windfall from a healthy economy and a landmark tobacco settlement, the House and Senate on Wednesday passed their versions of a record-breaking state budget that focuses on children. . . Among the major differences to be worked out is how much the state should spend from the first installment of the $11.3 billion settlement reached with tobacco companies. Of the $750 million the state has received so far, the House would spend $100 million and the Senate $220 million. Some legislators questioned why they can't use more.
- Lawmakers hope to agree on a $45 billion budget during a week set to begin with testimony Monday from one of the key attorneys in the state's fight with big tobacco. . . Senate President Toni Jennings has asked attorney C. David Fonvielle of Tallahassee to appear Monday before an ethics panel to explain how members of the state's team of private attorneys in the tobacco case were picked.
- The judge overseeing Florida's tobacco settlement has ordered Florida to follow the example of Texas in deciding how much lawyers get paid for bringing the lawsuit. Circuit Judge Harold J. Cohen on Thursday ordered attorneys who represented the state to incorporate into Florida's agreement part of the Texas settlement, which has a comprehensive plan for paying lawyers.
- Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Cohen ordered attorneys who represented the state to incorporate a portion of a settlement reached in Texas into Florida's settlement agreements. . . The settlement, which includes unprecedented advertising and marketing restrictions, calls for an independent arbitration team to dictate "reasonable" attorneys' fees, which the tobacco industry would pay.
- Attorney General Bob Butterworth on Friday said he did nothing wrong in inviting private attorneys working on Florida's tobacco lawsuit to his Hollywood home and his Fort Lauderdale office building for fund-raisers for President Clinton.
- In remarks prepared Thursday, Butterworth will urge the committee to look into more campaign contributions made by trial team attorneys. "For the purposes of thoroughness, honesty and fairness, this committee hopefully will examine all political campaign contributions made by trial teams members," Butterworth said. "Including those made to members of the Legislature, which has the final say on the fees to be paid to these lawyers."
- When a reluctant Attorney General BOB BUTTERWORTH appears today before a Senate committee investigating Florida's muddled tobacco settlement, he will be grilled about a questionable fund-raiser for Vice President AL GORE held at his Fort Lauderdale office building in 1996.
- Florida's $11.3 billion deal with U.S. cigarette makers, reached last August, will remain intact should a proposed national legal settlement come undone, a spokesman for Florida's attorney general said on Wednesday..
- A former member of the state's tobacco legal team says Attorney General Bob Butterworth's office was a collection point for 1995 campaign contributions to Butterworth's Mississippi counterpart. Tim Howard told The Tampa Tribune for a story Wednesday that contributions for Mississippi Attorney General Mike Moore went to Carlos McDonald, who is Butterworth's executive deputy. Howard's statement contradicts McDonald's testimony to a Senate committee Monday.
- With some members objecting that it would expand welfare, the Senate passed a bill on Thursday to use $75 million in tobacco settlement money to extend health coverage to 225,000 more children.
- The investigation into the behind-the-scenes dealings of the state's $11 billion tobacco settlement will wait until after the legislative session is over, the head of the investigating panel said Thursday. . . But "this fiasco is the most outrageous example of good government gone bad that I can ever recall in Florida's history," Crist said.
- Sen. CHARLIE CRIST's investigation of the state's tobacco settlement went up in smoke on Wednesday. Senate President TONI JENNINGS ordered her fellow Republican to halt his wide-ranging inquiry, saying Crist's Ethics, Elections and Executive Business Committee needed to become "more focused."
- The judge overseeing Florida's $11 billion tobacco settlement on Friday ordered $50 million be paid immediately to the state's private attorneys -- likely igniting a constitutional battle. At the same time, the state dropped its final claim against cigarette makers that could have sought further restrictions on advertising -- a move one of the private attorneys called an unnecessary concession.
- The tool served its purpose with precision and power. Now it is almost certain to be dismantled. The Senate on Friday voted to repeal Florida's third-party Medicaid liability law, the controversial statute that made possible the lawsuit against Big Tobacco that yielded last year's $11.3 billion settlement. The bill now goes to Gov. Lawton Chiles, who has indicated he will support it.
- A Pensacola lawyer who masterminded the passage of legislation that enabled the state to win a suit against tobacco companies said yesterday that Gov. Lawton Chiles insisted it be done secretly.
- After spending six months examining questions surrounding Florida's landmark tobacco settlement, state SEN. CHARLIE CRIST had hoped the final set of hearings this week would produce the kind of fireworks that would propel his U.S. Senate campaign. But Wednesday's meeting was canceled, and the news from Thursday's hearing that Crist called ``stunning'' has been reported widely for years. Crist, R-St. Petersburg, might have better luck today. On tap is a long-promised showdown with GOV. LAWTON CHILES
- The Senate's long-running investigation of the state's $11.3 billion suit against the tobacco industry wraps up tomorrow with testimony from Gov. Lawton Chiles. Although prior testimony has ranged from tedious to sensational, the Executive Business, Ethics and Elections Committee has yet to pin down exactly how the private lawyers representing the state were picked and how the fee provisions of the contract were decided.
- Gov. LAWTON CHILES was honored twice on Wednesday for his leadership on health issues. For Florida's historic fight against cigarette makers, Chiles received the Mike Synar Memorial Public Service Award from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. PRESIDENT CLINTON and VICE PRESIDENT GORE are the previous recipients of the award, named for former U.S. REP. MIKE SYNAR, D-Okla., an early anti-tobacco leader who died in 1996.
- Gov. Lawton Chiles told a Senate committee yesterday that secrecy was justified in the passage of anti-tobacco legislation four years ago because he was fighting ''the powers of darkness.''
- "It was Lawton's day,'' Sen. W.D. Childers, R-Pensacola, said afterward. ``He didn't get rattled, trapped, shaken or anything. He answered everything with authority.''
- The fight over Florida's windfall from its settlement with cigarette makers is becoming more contentious than the battle that produced the agreement. With lawmakers ready to spend the portion already paid by the tobacco industry in the $11 billion settlement and lawyers who worked on the case wrangling over how much of the money they will get, a judge decided Friday he will keep control over the $750 million down payment for now.
- Gov. Lawton Chiles on Friday told a state Senate ethics panel investigating the state' s tobacco settlement that it " doesn' t bother me a wit" how the deal got done because the benefits to children will be so great.
- CHILES, a Democrat, told the Senate ethics committee that he was not involved in the selection of the state's trial team and had little knowledge of the passage of a pivotal bill that helped the state settle a landmark case with the industry over smoking-related illnesses in August last year. Squaring off against long-time political rival Sen. CHARLIE CRIST, R-St. Petersburg, Chiles said under oath that he was satisfied with the outcome of Florida's tobacco battle and did not lose much sleep over the details of how it was won.
- Trying to retain jurisdiction over the tobacco industry's $750 million down payment on its settlement with the state, a judge on Friday ordered the money moved from an escrow account to the court's registry. The judge overseeing Florida's $11 billion settlement with cigarette makers said a bill giving lawmakers the right to decide how the money is spent is unconstitutional. Circuit Judge HAROLD COHEN said any intervention by lawmakers before the money is released to the state would be illegal.
- In a move some are calling unconstitutional, the state on Thursday refused to return $149 million in tobacco settlement money turned over by a bank.
- Circuit Judge HAROLD COHEN issued a one-page order saying the deal was final, a legal technicality raised by the tobacco industry. Industry attorneys had said the deal was not final until all the appeals were complete. The final loose end was tied last week when the state dropped its appeal for the release of sensitive tobacco documents, said Steve Krigbaum, an attorney for the tobacco companies. Virtually all of the records the state was seeking already have been made public on the Internet or in other states' cases.
- Nine months after the tobacco industry made the $750 million deposit as the first payment in the historic but controversial settlement of the state's lawsuit against it, only $50 million has been spent, on the anti-smoking campaign aimed at children. . . But come July 1, the state plans to begin harvesting the windfall -- at least some of it.
- The Legislature should consider placing more restrictions on state lawsuits litigated by private lawyers, and on state employees who borrow money or leave their jobs for the private sector, the staff of the Senate's ethics committee has concluded. Six recommendations were outlined Monday in a 21-page preliminary report after a six-month inquiry into the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
- After five months of hearings, the matter-of-fact recommendations of a Senate committee investigating Florida's $11.3 billion tobacco lawsuit didn't please even the panel's chairman. So on Wednesday, SEN. CHARLIE CRIST, R-St. Petersburg, released his own blistering three-page summary of the committee's findings and called for a Florida Elections Commission inquiry into possibly illegal fund-raising by state employees.
- A state senator is asking the Florida Elections Commission to examine solicitations of campaign contributions from members of the "dream team" of state-hired lawyers who sued the tobacco industry. Attorney General BOB BUTTERWORTH has acknowledged asking Palm Beach attorney BOB MONTGOMERY and other state-hired lawyers for contributions to the Democratic National Committee at a fund-raiser featuring Vice President Al Gore in Fort Lauderdale in October 1996. This came in the midst of strategy sessions they were holding for the lawsuit against cigarette makers.
- Florida officeholders cut secret deals, avoided an open process and may have committed campaign finance violations in their drive to win an $11.3 billion settlement from the tobacco industry, a state investigation committee chairman said Wednesday.
- By dogging insurance companies, hospitals and airlines, BOB MONTGOMERY has captured 56 verdicts or settlements worth a million dollars or more. . . So when he suedhis colleagues on Florida's legal "dream team" -- claiming they were in cahoots with the tobacco industry and jilted him out of a paycheck -- pundits from Tallahasee to Washington rolled their eyes. And some of the lawyers he is suing worry that the dispute is overshadowing a historic victory and further tarnishing their profession.
- The contentious battle over legal fees has "completely soured" the state's $11 billion deal with the tobacco industry, Circuit Judge Harold Cohen said in pulling out of the case. Cohen said Thursday he no longer could preside over the remaining disputes in the landmark lawsuit settled last August, but he issued a parting warning that a big fee for the state's trial team could poison the Legislature against lawyers. Cohen stepped down at the request of attorneys Bob Montgomery, Bob Kerrigan and Sheldon Schlesinger, who said the judge could not be impartial in deciding whether they are entitled to 25 percent of the settlement.
- HAROLD J. COHEN, the Palm Beach County judge thrust into the national spotlight when he presided over Florida's legal battle with Big Tobacco, stepped down from the case on Thursday, beset by allegations of bias. But in a parting shot at private attorneys once dubbed Florida's "dream team" -- now mired in a bitter dispute concerning their paychecks -- Cohen warned that if extensive litigation is not avoided, the state could take over regulation of lawyers. In a two-page order stepping down from the case, the judge said the battle regarding attorneys' fees has "become a major feature of the litigation . . . and has completely soured the . . . victory."
- Attorney General Bob Butterworth continued negotiations Monday with cigarette makers to increase the state's $11 billion tobacco settlement by $1.7 billion. . . "We are very close and hopefully we can resolve it without going into court," Butterworth said during a visit to Fort Myers.
- Attorney General Bob Butterworth said he is preparing to use Minnesota's May settlement with cigarette manufacturers to increase Florida's take. The move would be made under a "most favored nation" clause contained in Florida's August 1997 settlement, which means Florida can adopt portions of other states' settlements that are better than the provisions Florida landed.
- The state Attorney General's office filed papers Friday saying Palm Beach Circuit Judge James Carlisle should step aside because of his ties to a lawyer involved in the remaining issue, a dispute over legal fees for the state's trial team. The state's concern is over Carlisle's relationship with lawyer Jack Scarola, who worked on the judge's 1984 election campaign. Scarola represents Joe Rice, a state lawyer who helped draft the $11 billion settlement the state reached with cigarette makers last August.
- Gov. Lawton Chiles on Thursday asked the state Supreme Court to stop a judge from disbursing $200 million in disputed funds to private lawyers who represented the state in its case against the tobacco industry. The emergency petition was filed after the 4th District Court of Appeal denied the state's emergency motion for a stay. . . Some private attorneys who represented the state are seeking a 25 percent cut of the deal -- as outlined in their original contract. But the settlement as written calls for "reasonable" fees to be determined by arbitration.
- HAROLD LEWIS, longtime friend of Gov. LAWTON CHILES and a former inspector general, lost his job last year for accepting money from one of Florida's anti-tobacco lawyers. Now under investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a federal grand jury, Lewis nevertheless has a new job in state government: attorney in the Division of Retirement.
- Cigarette makers made another payment on Florida's landmark $11.3 billion tobacco settlement on Tuesday as Florida officials moved toward winning an additional $1.7 billion from the industry. Tobacco companies wired $220 million into Florida accounts
- Negotiators in Florida are close to concluding two agreements that would increase the size of the state's take from its suit against the tobacco industry, and could resolve a bitter, long-running dispute over fees among its lawyers. A spokeswoman for Gov. Lawton Chiles said her office expects an announcement as early as Thursday on an update to the state's 1997 agreement with cigarette makers. It would add an estimated $1.7 billion to the state's recovery amount over 25 years, bringing the total to $13 billion. It also would set out new marketing restrictions, including a ban on promotional items, such as T-shirts, hats and backpacks, said spokeswoman Edie Ousley. . . The changes are being made under a provision of Florida's settlement that allows it to incorporate advantageous provisions of other states' subsequent deals with the industry.
- Showing the rippling effects of Minnesota's tobacco settlement across the nation, cigarette makers announced an agreement Thursday with the state of Florida to amend that state's tobacco settlement. Florida joins Mississippi and Texas in revising settlements based on the results of Minnesota's $6.1 billion settlement in its smoking-and-health litigation.
- Most lawyers on the state's tobacco litigation "dream team" will receive $8.3 million checks next week as the first installment of their fees, Attorney General Bob Butterworth said yesterday. Wayne Hogan and W.C. Gentry of Jacksonville are among those slated to split $100 million as the first payment for their work in winning a settlement from the industry that officials said would total $13 billion over the next 25 years.
- Florida's settlement would now total $13 billion and the new deal contains arbitration procedures to resolve cantankerous disputes over hundreds of millions in fees claimed by Florida's hired lawyers, Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles said at a news conference. "With today's agreement, we have pounded another nail in tobacco's coffin," Chiles said.
- he way Gov. Lawton Chiles sees it, Florida's settlement with cigarette makers won't be a done deal until it gets $1.7 billion sweeter. Chiles planned a news conference today to announce that the state's take from its settlement with Big Tobacco will be nearly $13 billion under a renegotiated agreement aimed at matching the better settlements reached by other states.
- The "dream team" of high-powered trial attorneys who helped Florida win the historic settlement with Big Tobacco a year ago will finally get their first paycheck -- more than $9 million for each of the 11 law firms. A settlement, at least a temporary one, of the acrimonious fight over money between the state and the lawyers is expected to be announced today in Tallahaseee.
- Florida Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) called into question the timing of the first payment to the tobacco trial lawyers today. "It's a little too convenient that this group of liberal trial lawyers are receiving close to three billion dollars, due to a deal brokered by Lawton Chiles and Buddy McKay, less than 50 days before the general election. The 25,000 members of Florida Citizens for a Sound Economy find this extremely troubling," said Slade O'Brien, director of Florida CSE. "This windfall virtually guarantees that the trial lawyers will step up their attempts to buy their way or intimidate the Florida Legislature, and that's just wrong," said O'Brien.
- "I believe we need to begin budgeting and planning for the use of the money," Senate Minority Leader Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, said. He said the state should begin targeting the money toward broad state needs in health care and education, and that a trust fund for future programs should be created. . . But Schafer and most Republicans say the Legislature shouldn't start thinking about spending the tobacco money until it's in the bank. . . Instead, Schafer placed State Health Officer Murray Sagsveen in charge of designing a "responsible and effective" plan that would include a strong public health focus.
- Gov. Bill
Graves says he is not going to spend any money from the state's estimated $1.5 billion settlement with the tobacco companies until the
money actually gets here. The governor also said during an interview in his office Wednesday he fears the federal government may try to
get 60 percent of the state's share of the tobacco settlement money.
- Contra Costa County could
collect upward of $200 million as its share of a California legal settlement with the tobacco industry. "It sounds like a lot of money, but
think of how much tobacco has cost this county?" said Julie Freestone of the county's Tobacco Prevention Project.
- Alaska should spend the $22 million it receives next
year from a recent settlement with tobacco companies to pay for health care, child protection and efforts to stop smoking, Gov. Tony
Knowles said Friday.
- [C]opetitioners: COALITION FOR A TOBACCO FREE PENNSYLVANIA, CITIZENS FOR CONSUMER JUSTICE AMERICAN COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND HEALTH, CLEAN AIR COUNCIL, AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS, PENNSYLVANIA CHAPTER, SMOKEFREE EDUCATIONAL SERVICES . . . SmokeFree Pennsylvania and PennPIRG hereby petition for leave to intervene. Petitioners seek to prevent a wholesale denial of due process to any and all who might bring public interest litigation against the tobacco companies in the future, whose efforts will be thwarted by the Master Settlement Agreement's attempt to stifle all such litigation
- Attorneys
general-elect in California and New York also have asked the out-going attorneys general to delay their approval of the deal to provide an
opportunity for public debate. Meanwhile, tobacco industry spokesman Scott Williams said that the agreement is fair, criticizing advocates
such as Prof. Banzhaf who are trying to delay approval. "They would prefer litigation and confrontation over moving forward and progress,"
he said.
- District Judge
MARGARET SPRINGGATE Thursday approved a negotiated settlement for the tobacco industry to pay the state $1.2 billion over the next 25 years
to be used for public health programs. Springgate said the court would continue to hold jurisdiction over the case to see that both sides live
up to the agreement. She also canceled a trial set for July 2000, which had been set to hear the suit filed by the state against the tobacco
industry.
- The city has reached a tentative deal to get a larger share of the
state's proposed $25 billion tobacco settlement, officials said yesterday. Details of the arrangement will be divulged today at a court
hearing before state Supreme Court Justice Stephen Crane. . . "The deal has been struck addressing the city's objections," said Marc
Wurzel, a spokesman for Attorney General ennis Vacco.
- So what¹s stopping the entire United Nations from knocking at the door? After all, much of the
documentation is ready and available, and its in English. ³A lot of the spade work has been done,² says Don Riddle, attorney from the
Houston firm Riddle and Baumgartner, which is representing the government of the Marshall Islands in its case. ³Everyone has all the
evidence.² Tobacco companies are working hard to make sure these cases are differentiated from domestic cases, and are not seen as new
precedents for overseas plaintiffs.
- Former Hamilton County Commissioner
Norman Murdock and another politically connected lawyer stand to reap millions of dollars in legal fees from the national tobacco settlement
brokered last month. Since Ohio was one of the latecomers in suing cigarette makers, Mr. Murdock and other private lawyers who worked on
the state's lawsuit said Wednesday they expect to receive substantially less than their counterparts in other states.
- Superior
Court Judge Ronald Prager signed the agreement between the state and the nation's largest tobacco companies after a two-hour hearing that
briefly addressed criticism of the deal. Barring an appeal within the next 60 days, the settlement will become final, according to several
attorneys involved.
- SAN DIEGO--Saying it was "fair and just" and
would "redound to the benefit of all citizens of California," a San Diego Superior Court judge Wednesday approved a consent decree that
settles five state and local lawsuits against the tobacco industry.
- A Superior Court judge Wednesday
approved California's $23.9 billion settlement with the tobacco industry, clearing the way for the state to receive the money. Attorney General
Dan LUNGREN said he was delighted with Judge Ronald Prager's decision.
- The CALIFORNIA MEDICAL ASSOCIATION -- the state's largest organization of doctors -- as well as
state branches of the AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY and the AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION yesterday disassociated themselves
from the settlement. Also dropping out of the case is the state branch of the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS.
- ``The national settlement is not an end to
the war on tobacco,'' stated Dr. Fogel. ``The American Cancer Society will continue to work at the local, state and federal levels to implement
public health measures that have a real and lasting impact,'' he added.
- Four public health groups asked a court on Wednesday to drop them as plaintiffs in a
landmark lawsuit against the tobacco industry, reaffirming their opposition to the national tobacco settlement. ``We cannot be party to any
settlement that allows the tobacco industry to continue its illegal, predatory marketing efforts targeting kids, and goes so far as to protect them
against past and future liability,'' Thomas Fogel, president of the the California division of the American Cancer Society, said in a
statement.
- Wherefore: amici respectfully request that the Court withhold any approval of the proposed MSA pending a public review period of at least 90 to 120 days in order to permit a comprehensive review of the proposed settlement terms and their likely impact on vital public interests, request that the Court appoint a Special Master to conduct an impartial review and hearing, and request that the Court condition approval of the proposed MSA on the inclusion of a significant tobacco control program
- New
York's attorney general has asked a state judge to approve a settlement with tobacco companies that would reimburse the state for $25 billion
spent treating smoking-related illnesses. The settlement includes a new agreement between Attorney General Dennis VACCO and New York
City reached earlier today that accelerates payment of some funds earmarked for the city, said Marc Wurzel, Vacco's spokesman.
- New York City will get a larger than previously estimated share of the $25 billion that the state will get from the nationwide settlement with tobacco companies, it was disclosed Wednesday. Lawyer Jack McConnell, who helped the state attorney general craft the deal, asked State Supreme Court Justice Stephen Crane during a court hearing Wednesday to approve a new settlement addressing the city's complaint it was not getting enough money under the previous plan.
- The tobacco industry's assurances to treat
Alabama the same as other states in any national settlement were never put in writing, the attorney general's chief deputy confirmed Tuesday. .
. Last month, Pryor refused requests for written documents detailing the assurances. But he said he was prepared to prove in court that "we
have received these assurances" that Alabama wouldn't be hurt by not suing the tobacco industry and would get its fair share of a settlement
on comparable terms with other states.
- At least one-quarter of New Jersey's multibillion dollar deal with cigarette makers should be allocated for tobacco-control programs, according to a coalition of anti-smoking groups. New Jersey Breathes, a coalition of 40 groups, released a plan Wednesday that calls for the creation of aggressive tobacco-control programs and a commission to oversee their funding.
- Cook County Circuit Judge Richard E. Neville on Tuesday signed a consent decree between the state and tobacco
companies. His signature was needed to speed along Illinois' first payment of $112 million, which is expected within weeks.
- It fell to one man, John
Calhoun WELLS, to make a lot of rich lawyers unspeakably richer last week. . . He just quit a four-year stint as Bill Clinton's head
of the Federal Mediation Service, as he explained in a letter to the President, so he could "attend to building financial security" for his
family. Certainly a man on such a mission can do himself no harm by making a bunch of millionaires very, very grateful. Mr. Wells
was the crucial swing vote that awarded $8.2 billion to lawyers in the Florida, Texas, and Mississippi cases. Giving new meaning to
the word mediation, he granted them bigger sums than they had originally been asking.
- A longtime friend of Lawton Chiles has corralled the private
lawyers who fought the tobacco industry for Florida with a dinner-table challenge: Donate a few million of their billion-dollar legal fees
to a cause Chiles cherished -- healthy babies. One number floated: One percent of the Florida firms' fees, or $18 million. "But for
Lawton Chiles, we wouldn't have this money," says one of the tobacco fighters, Palm Beach attorney Bob Montgomery. "I certainly
think we ought to do something to dedicate ourselves to perpetuating the interests that Lawton Chiles had."
- A lawyer is being sued by a former partner who says
he is owed a share of the $3.4 billion in legal fees from Florida's tobacco litigation. Henry E. Valenzuela of Tampa filed suit against
Steve Yerrid Wednesday in Hillsborough Circuit Court saying he is owed 10 percent of Yerrid's share in legal fees from tobacco
companies. The suit claims Yerrid signed a contract promising Valenzuela the share when he left the law firm they founded together.
- The University of Florida's College of Law
will be renamed in honor of a prominent anti-tobacco lawyer from Pensacola who donated $10 million to his alma matter. Fredric G. Levin's
gift, announced by the university on Wednesday, is the largest one-time cash gift from an individual to the university and the second largest to a
public law school in the United States.
- Pensacola attorney Fredric G. Levin said he is giving the money because of a
promise made to the late Gov. Lawton Chiles, a longtime friend, to see the public benefits from some of the $3.43 billion in fees awarded to
private lawyers who handled the state's lawsuit against tobacco companies. "I had made the commitment to Lawton that -- in the event the
tobacco money came in -- I was going to do everything I could," said Levin, 61, who received both his undergraduate and law degrees from UF.
- On Wednesday, the local legislative
delegation will hear requests for money and special local acts of the legislature at public meetings in Naples and Immokalee. Among the
requests are money for restoring the environmentally sick Lake Trafford, building a new shelter for abused women, creating an
environmental learning center at Rookery Bay, and establishing a one-stop career and social service center in Immokalee.
- After careful consideration of DR. WELLS's
background, reputation and skills, the settling parties unanimously selected him for the position. Any other representation of the facts is
inaccurate. There is no question that Dr. Wells wholly fulfilled his responsibilities as chairman.
- The idea of creating a lasting endowment with proceeds
from Florida's tobacco settlement is something former House Speaker Dan Webster, R-Orlando, a senator now, pursued last year. . . "He
has provided a wonderful tribute to Gov. Chiles that also will reflect, for a long time after Gov. Bush's service, very favorably on him and
his leadership," says Ron Sachs, once communications director for Chiles. "He did not have to do this," Sachs said of Bush. "He has
proved early on that he is a different kind of Republican."
- ``I believe he'll be able to look down for a long, long time and be able to see that
his efforts weren't in vain,'' Bush said Wednesday. ``We will have the best child welfare system in the nation,'' said Kathleen Kearney, the
Broward County juvenile judge whom Bush has tapped as secretary of Children and Families, an agency struggling with crises.
- In a move hailed by social services
advocates and anti-smoking groups, Bush also called for placing the tobacco money in a unique investment account named for former Gov.
LAWTON CHILES, who died in December near the end of his second term.
- Florida will use part of its landmark $11.3 billion settlement with tobacco
companies to fund a $2 billion health care fund for children and the elderly, Gov. Jeb Bush said on Wednesday. Proceeds from the
Lawton Chiles Tobacco Endowment of Children and Elders will be spent on preventive health programs for children and the elderly, two
of Florida's most vulnerable populations, Bush said.
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