Texas Medicaid Suit News on the Web
Archive, September, October, 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.
OFFICE OF THE TEXAS ATTORNEY GENERAL PRESS RELEASES
- 01/22/98 Morales Says Judge's Signature On Tobacco Settlement Seals Brighter Future For Children's Health Care
- 01/22/98 Morales Proposes Permanent Fund For Child Health Care With Half Of Proceeds From Tobacco Settlement
- 01/16/98 Morales Obtains $15.3 Billion, Marketing Restrictions In Settlement With Tobacco Industry
- 01/16/98 Chronology of Texas Tobacco Litigation
- 01/16/98 Summary of Tobacco Settlement
- As Texas' giant lawsuit against Big Tobacco lumbers toward trial, lawyers by the dozen have migrated to these peculiar, border-straddling towns of 63,000, creating a cottage industry in their wake. On State Line Avenue - where Texarkana, Texas, meets Texarkana, Ark. - one office building hums with tobacco industry staffers hauling cartons of documents off rental vans. Several blocks away, lawyers for the state are taking over a former psychiatric hospital for adolescents and turning it into office space. As they gird for battle, each side is dropping millions of dollars on hotel rooms, cars, furniture and food to maintain their 100-person-plus staffs of lawyers and assistants for the four to six months that the trial may last. "The people of Texarkana have never seen people spend as much money as the two sides" in this case, Ron Motley, an attorney for the state, said last week. "The waitresses in this town will get the biggest tips they've ever seen."
- Citing fears that public comments might unfairly influence the pool of prospective jurors he plans to assemble next week, U.S. District Judge David Folsom issued a two-page written order banning all participants in the trial from speaking with the news media about issues in the case, either "on the record" or "off the record." The judge also issued an order prohibiting either side from attempting to identify members of the jury pool; engaging in surveys, media contacts or advertising that might communicate ideas to that group; or researching possible attitudes of people in the pool.
- A federal judge is considering whether to prohibit tobacco industry officials and the Texas attorney general's office from talking publicly about their upcoming $14 billion court fight. Attorney General Dan Morales on Tuesday released a two-page proposed order to gag state and industry officials from talking with the news media and public about the lawsuit or any other litigation involving the tobacco industry. U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana, Texas, set a hearing on the proposal on Thursday. The trial in the case is scheduled for Oct. 6.
- In a sneak preview of the opening statement he will make to a federal jury in Texarkana, Attorney General Dan Morales on Thursday criticized tobacco industry executives as liars who refuse to admit they have harmed Texans' health and lured children into nicotine addiction. Morales released documents that he said provide new legal proof there was a concerted effort to turn children into smokers by launching tobacco products with root beer and fruit juice flavors. "When Texas is finished with the tobacco industry, the public will know the truth about the lies, the research and the secrets," Morales said. "When this trial is complete, the dark side of this evil empire will finally have been exposed."
- U.S. District Judge David Folsom said a pool of 200 potential jurors would be summoned as scheduled on Sept. 29 and then sent home after completing necessary paperwork, but the trial start would be postponed while he hears pretrial motions from both sides. The motions will revolve around such questions as the structure of the trial and whether to admit internal industry documents, but a crucial decision will affect the admissibility of a statistical model on which the state is basing its claims.
- The 1990 letter from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. to a New York elementary school principal whose students were concerned about the ill effects of cigarettes was simple. "Despite all the research going on," the letter read, "the simple and unfortunate fact is that scientists do not know the cause or causes of the chronic diseases reported to be associated with smoking." But it was the final line that a lawyer for the state of Texas loudly emphasized in a federal courtroom Tuesday: "We would appreciate your passing this information along to your [fifth-grade] students," the letter ended. The correspondence was one of scores of internal tobacco industry documents that the state cited before U.S. District Judge David Folsom to back up its claims that for 40 years, cigarette makers have waged a misinformation campaign to discredit and hide the health dangers of smoking and to target underage smokers. Officially, it was only a pretrial hearing on evidence. But in effect, it was a sneak preview of Texas' $8.6 billion lawsuit against Big Tobacco, now scheduled to go to trial Oct. 14.
- Ron Motley, a South Carolina attorney who has been retained by Texas as well as 29 of the other states suing the tobacco industry, tried to show the two faces of tobacco -- the public pledges vs. alleged internal cover-ups. That is the theme Texas is expected to use in seeking to persuade a jury to hold Big Tobacco liable for the state's cost of treating smokers. The cover-up argument is particularly crucial in the first phase of the trial, which will focus on the state's allegations that the tobacco industry is guilty of racketeering.
- Attorneys representing Texas in its $14 billion Medicaid lawsuit against Big Tobacco said the documents, including the so-called Liggett papers, would be used as evidence that the industry and its law firms for decades concealed the health effects of smoking in order to block federal regulation of cigarettes. "It is a mosaic of organized fraud .... They suppressed and covered up information to maintain the status quo and keep the regulators at bay," Texas attorney Ronald Motley said during a pretrial hearing in Texarkana.
- A federal judge gave the state of Texas a key strategic victory Monday in its $8.6 billion lawsuit against Big Tobacco by dividing next month's scheduled trial into three parts and by making allegations of tobacco industry misconduct the first issue the jury will hear.
- * Have you read "The Runaway Jury," by John Grisham? * Do you believe that most smokers can stop smoking, if they want to?
- Neither the tobacco industry nor the state had requested the delay, but numerous motions remain before the court and the extra time will allow the judge to review the requests. Folsom scheduled a hearing Tuesday on several motions. Also Monday, Folsom ruled the case would be split into three separate elements. The first section to be tried will be charges of racketeering, followed by liability issues, then the possibility of damages. Ron Dusek, a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Dan Morales, said presenting the case in three sections will be less confusing to the jury.
- Tobacco company officials say privately that they are optimistic about their chances -- and the ways that a victory might strengthen the industry's hand in negotiations with Congress over the legislation that will codify the proposed settlement. . . Like most huge trials, State of Texas vs. American Tobacco Company, et al., will begin slowly. Today, prospective jurors will be given questionnaires to fill out and then will be sent home. Both sides will begin arguing preliminary motions before the judge, laying the groundwork for the battle to come, and jury selection will follow. The actual presentation of evidence to the jury might not begin until the end of October or early November, Texas officials said.
- Texas vs. Big Tobacco promises to be one of the largest, and most closely watched, liability cases in U.S. history because the $14 billion case is the first of more than 40 similar state suits against the tobacco companies to go to trial. But the case isn't just big. It's also complex, so much so that U.S. District Court Judge David Folsom is wrangling with the idea of dividing the trial into more than one part. A decision on that issue is expected any day.
- In case you didn't hear about it, the Texas Supreme Court had something to say about tobacco lawsuits a few months ago. . . The conservative state court -- which has repeatedly ruled against plaintiffs in various kinds of damage suits -- held 6-2 that Grinnell's family couldn't pursue a claim that the tobacco company hadn't properly warned Grinnell of the health hazards of smoking. . . The attorney general and the Supreme Court agree in another part of the order. The court ruled that Grinnell's family could sue the tobacco company over a claim that the cigarette maker did not properly warn him that tobacco is addictive.
- Federal investigators are mining Texas' lawsuit against the tobacco industry for documents and witnesses to advance a separate criminal investigation into whether the industry conspired with its law firms to hide the dangers of smoking. Agents of the U.S. Department of Justice have visited lawyers handling the state's $8.6 billion Medicaid lawsuit several times recently, seeking - and in many cases obtaining - documents and other material from files prepared for the trial that's set for this month, The Dallas Morning News has learned. . . Texas' civil case is pumping new life into the investigation of the tobacco industry's law firms because the state has turned up previously unseen evidence on that front, several people involved in national tobacco litigation said. . . Texas thinks Dr. [Gary} Huber would provide "powerful" evidence that tobacco executives and their lawyers have engaged in "long-standing fraud" by suppressing information about the risks of smoking through means that include witness intimidation, according to some court records reviewed by The News.
- And who was Big Tobacco's choice to defend itself in this bet-the-future case? Dan K. Webb, a small-town Illinois boy from a regional law school who has become the litigator of choice for companies in deep trouble.
- During a hearing Wednesday, U.S. District Judge David Folsom told attorneys for both sides that jury selection will begin Oct. 27.
- A federal judge on Wednesday postponed until Oct. 27 the start of a $14 billion Medicaid lawsuit filed against the tobacco industry by the state of Texas. U.S. District Judge David Folsom said in a ruling from the bench that a huge volume of pre-trial motions forced the delay, court officials said.
- Tobacco companies Tuesday asked an appellate court to overturn a federal judge's order that, they contend, will unfairly tilt Texas' anti-tobacco trial in the state's favor. They also asked for a delay in the trial, for which jury selection is scheduled to resume in Texarkana next week, to give the appellate court time to consider their petition.
- One week before Texas' $14 billion lawsuit against tobacco companies was to begin, industry attorneys asked an appeals court yesterday to freeze the case. The motion filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says that a lower court exceeded its authority in the way it dealt with the case. In their filing seeking a stay in the case, the eight tobacco companies and three trade groups said they were protesting "a plainly unlawful trial plan."
- Responding to tobacco companies, a federal judge Monday agreed to keep sealed a sworn statement by a medical researcher that may be key evidence in Texas' lawsuit against cigarette makers. . . Attorneys representing the state had asked U.S. District Judge David Folsom to allow the jury to hear claims by former Harvard University researcher Gary Huber . . . Huber's sworn statement taken by state attorneys in Beaumont last month has been sealed and is the subject of substantial speculation. . . He refused Monday to discuss his deposition for the state, but he denied he ever took sides. He said he was committed to research. "I never worked for the industry," he said. "I am not an industry scientist, and I am offended by those implications."
- A federal judge Monday denied the tobacco industry's attempt to appeal how a $14 billion lawsuit by Texas against Big Tobacco would proceed. U.S. District Judge David Folsom ruled last week that the lawsuit would be divided into three parts to save time and make the evidence clearer to jurors. . . Also Monday, a fourth version of the lawsuit was filed, adding witness intimidation to the racketeering count against the tobacco industry.
- In Texarkana's dilapidated downtown, across from the abandoned and aptly named Hotel Grim, tobacco attorneys have their command center in a former bank. They say they will stand and fight in Texas rather than cut a settlement deal.
- But Dan Webb, the tobacco companies' lead attorney in the Texas case, denied the reports and said the industry was intent on going to trial. "There are no settlement discussions regarding this case, and this case is going to trial," Webb said in a statement. "Reports that the tobacco companies have proposed a dialogue with the state of Texas to settle the Texas Attorney General case are completely false." He said it was his "strong belief" that the false report had been leaked by the team of Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to put pressure on the tobacco companies.
- "The belief early on was that Texas would settle because its case was viewed as being weak," said Mary Aronson, a Washington-based tobacco litigation specialist who counsels institutional investors. "But tobacco companies wanted to go forward in Texas. But that may no longer be the case. Today's court ruling could put increasing pressure on the tobacco industry to settle."
- In a major legal victory for Texas, a federal appeals court has rejected attempts by tobacco industry lawyers to change the ground rules in the state's $14 billion lawsuit against cigarette makers. Attorney General Dan Morales said today's ruling clears the way for the trial to begin Oct. 27 in Texarkana.
- He said Shook, Hardy & Bacon, which represents industry leader Philip Morris, and Jones Day, which represents R.J. Reynolds, came to the Health Center in 1985 and engaged in the contractual relationship "which was the most benign of documents. It funded us to check literature on smoking and other medical areas such as nutrition and lifestyles, and we published papers on our research." Huber denied being a tobacco consultant or a whistleblower.
- U.S. District Judge David Folsom, who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and needs surgery, said in an order that attorneys should consider themselves "in trial" during the delay. "This is to insure that the trial lawyers' schedules will remain open to allow the Court to quickly reschedule the trial as soon as the undersigned is available," he said in his order. Sources said they thought the trial, which had been scheduled to begin October 27 with jury selection, might now start in December.
- The judge said he plans to remain in charge of the massive case and would continue to handle paperwork and issue pretrial rulings during the period, according to lawyers on both sides. They said he indicated he would issue a formal order Friday setting back the trial from its current Oct. 27 starting date. Judge Folsom didn't return phones calls seeking comment Thursday. The new delay means the much-publicized trial, which is expected to last four to six months, may not be finished before Congress votes to approve or reject a $368.5 billion national settlement . . .
- Texas' $14 billion Medicaid lawsuit against the tobacco industry was postponed Thursday because the judge has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and requires surgery, officials said. . . "The judge has instructed lawyers for both sides to maintain a "ready for trial" posture and we intend to abide by those instructions. We look forward to resuming jury selection as soon as Judge Folsom's health will allow," Texas Attorney General Dan Morales said in a statement.
- Texas Attorney General Dan Morales says (Thursday) a federal judge in Texarkana has delayed indefinitely the start of the state's $14 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry for "personal health reasons."
- An East Texas lung specialist and longtime tobacco researcher said lawyers for cigarette makers asked him to destroy records and made veiled threats against him after learning he's cooperating with the state of Texas' $8.6 billion lawsuit against the tobacco industry. Dr. Gary Huber, described by anti-tobacco lawyers as a potentially devastating whistle-blower and star witness, said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News this week that industry officials and lawyers lied to him and misled him over two decades even as they pumped millions of dollars into his studies of smoking's impact on health. The two major U.S. law firms cited by Dr. Huber declined to comment on his specific allegations. But they denied doing anything wrong and insisted Dr. Huber is the one acting improperly by disclosing information that they allege is confidential.
- Huber said he has given the federal court in Texarkana 197 boxes of documents on tobacco-related research, and dozens of tapes from telephone conversations he secretely taped with tobacco lawyers.
- But there's increasing evidence that neither side actually wants to go to trial. Some of the industry's corporate lawyers and lobbyists are confidentially recommending to top executives that they try to settle the Texas case, The Dallas Morning News has learned. These advisers fear that a nasty trial or a negative jury verdict could damage their chances of winning approval of the $368.5 billion national settlement agreement now pending before Congress, according to people closely tracking the Texas suit.
- An attorney for John O'Quinn has vowed to "go to war" with the State Bar of Texas in its latest effort to disbar the famous Houston tort lawyer. . . O'Quinn was in Texarkana on Monday for the beginning of the state's trial against tobacco companies and was not available for comment. A spokesman for Attorney General Dan Morales declined to comment on the State Bar's petition against O'Quinn but said it would not change his role in the tobacco suit. "It doesn't affect his status," spokesman Ron Dusek said. "He's one of the best lawyers in the state of Texas and is going to play a lead role in the lawsuit. We expect him to give 100 percent, as he normally does."
- Negotiators finished clearing away two major obstacles Friday that had threatened to block settlement of Texas' huge tobacco lawsuit. An enhanced deal, now valued at more than $15 billion, is likely to be announced early next week, lawyers familiar with the case said. The two sides have reached an agreement in principle on all major points, including some special anti-smoking programs for Texas, the lawyers said. Negotiators are down to resolving minor, nonmonetary issues.
- A federal judge has delayed the opening of Texas' multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the tobacco industry to give both sides more time to hammer out a settlement.
- Tobacco companies offered Thursday to pay Texas $14.5 billion over the next 25 years to settle the state's lawsuit against them, lawyers familiar with the case told The Dallas Morning News. . . Attorney General Dan Morales wants cigarette makers to support a plan guaranteeing the team of well-known Texas trial lawyers he hired 15 percent of any money the state receives that is unencumbered by federal strings. The industry has flatly rejected that proposal, lawyers told The News.
- Texas and the nation's top tobacco companies are set to do battle in a huge Medicaid lawsuit starting Monday but experts believe they may opt to settle out of court rather than risk a humiliating defeat.
- Texas Attorney General Dan Morales and two powerful state lawmakers have ended their dispute over the expenditure of Texas' tobacco settlement funds. State Sen. Bill Ratliff's said he has signed, along with Morales and state Rep. Rob Junell, a Memorandum of Understanding that allows the tobacco proceeds to be deposited in the state's General Revenue Fund. Ratliff, who chairs the Senate Finance Committee; and Junell, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee, agreed to direct the first year's payments and future settlement proceeds to children and public health.
- Harris County has asked a federal judge to change the state's $15.3 billion tobacco settlement, if necessary, to protect the right of local taxpayers to pursue their own claims against cigarette companies over smoking-related health costs. Harris County and the Harris County Hospital District are among several counties and hospital districts . . [that] have asked U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana to let them belatedly intervene in the case because they fear the agreement would bar them from obtaining tobacco damages of their own. The language would purportedly release all claims of local governments, as well as the state's, against tobacco companies.
- ttorney General Dan Morales said Monday he would start spending $17 million late this month from the first check from Texas' tobacco settlement, intensifying his dispute with state legislators. "The money is here, and we must all work overtime to get it to our kids," Morales said at a news conference to announce he got the first $278 million payment Friday. "There is no reason to delay providing health coverage to our children."
- Morales suggested U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana, who approved the settlement, could impose fines or jail sentences on seven legislators and John Cornyn, a Republican candidate for attorney general, who have attacked the $2.3 billion in fees awarded private attorneys in the tobacco case. . . "If I were the judge, I certainly would have to consider the prospect of imposing sanctions for contempt," Morales said, contending their opposition was politically motivated.
- When Attorney General Dan Morales formally announces Texas' $15 billion tobacco settlement this week in Austin, he'll doubtless heap praise on the five prominent Texas trial lawyers he hired two years ago to launch the state's huge lawsuit. But as the television cameras roll, another man - wearing shiny black boots and swooshed-back hair and chewing on a cough drop - may start elbowing a bit closer to the front. If he does, he has some justification. . . Lawyers familiar with the case said Sunday that final details were being worked out in preparation for an announcement, probably Tuesday.
- Before a settlement has even been announced, Texas politicians are arguing over how to spend the billions of dollars the state is expected to reap from its lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
- Legal nitpicking slowed settlement talks in Texas's lawsuit against the tobacco industry, which meant no deal would be announced until at least Friday, a state spokesman said. The delays were said to be minor, but persistent enough to add an element of uncertainty as jury selection in the case, scheduled to begin on Friday, neared.
- Jury selection in the lawsuit between the state of Texas and the tobacco industry was delayed again Tuesday by a federal judge intent on giving the parties enough time to complete their mega-billion-dollar settlement. Sources say the fight between the state and Big Tobacco is mostly over; the holdup is over some wording and logistics. U.S. District Judge David Folsom, who hasn't wanted to waste time selecting Texarkana jurors for a trial that may not happen, issued the delay to allow more time for talks. He rescheduled the case for Friday.
- Even as a multibillion-dollar settlement of Texas' anti-tobacco lawsuit was still being drafted, reports that Attorney General Dan Morales planned to earmark some tobacco funds for health programs drew fire Tuesday from Gov. George W. Bush and legislative budget-writers. They said Morales would be overstepping his authority if he were to commit the state to spending settlement proceeds without legislative authorization . . . "Nowhere in the attorney general's job description is he made the czar of this money," said state Rep. Rob Junell, D-San Angelo, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
- Key legislators warned Attorney General Dan Morales on Tuesday not to cut deals with the tobacco industry that would dictate how the state spends its multibillion-dollar settlement from cigarette makers. Lawmakers who head the House and Senate budget committees say it is the Legislature's job -- not the attorney general's -- to decide how state money is spent. And they are angry that Morales has not consulted with them or other state officials about his negotiations with the tobacco industry.
- A scheduled press conference by Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to announce a settlement of the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry was postponed a second time on Friday until 1700 CST/2100 GMT, a state spokeswoman said. The announcement, originally set for 1200 CST/1600 GMT and then pushed back to 1400 CST/1800 GMT, was delayed by last-minute legal manuevering, according to attorneys.
- A press conference called to announce a settlement in the State of Texas lawsuit against the tobacco industry was postponed for two hours, a spokesman for state Attorney General Dan Morales said on Friday. The announcement had been scheduled for 1200 CST/1800 GMT but was put off until 1400 CST while Morales waited for U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texarkana, Texas, to approve the settlement. Morales spokesman Ward Tisdale blamed the delay on ``logistics,'' but sources close to the case said last-minute legal maneuvering by third parties might be involved.
- Tobacco lawyer Dan Webb told Reuters it was not known if U.S. District Judge David Folsom would also at that time consider motions by third parties attempting to shape the deal, said to be worth $15 billion. The settlement was supposed to have been approved earlier Friday and officially announced by Texas Attorney General Dan Morales in Austin, but got delayed Friday morning.
- Texas' nearly $15 billion tobacco settlement, due to be announced Friday, could produce a record $2.2 billion payday for the state's outside lawyers - a figure so large that it could jeopardize the national tobacco agreement pending before Congress, lawyers told The Dallas Morning News. Texas' huge fee demand for its team of prominent trial lawyers had been a sticking point during final negotiations last week. Once the matter was resolved, the sides quickly reached an agreement in principle Jan. 8 as previously reported.
- The tobacco industry's legal forces may be putting out a fire in the state of Texas, but in Minnesota next week they face an inferno. Thursday the judge in the Texas case dismissed the jury pool, and a settlement is expected to be announced Friday.
- The tobacco industry has tentatively agreed to pay a record $14.5 billion to settle a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas, representing the latest in a series of concessions by the beleaguered industry, sources said yesterday.
- Details of the settlement were not immediately available, but a spokesman for Texas Attorney General Dan Morales said the state scheduled a news conference in Austin on Friday to discuss the settlement. Sources told Reuters tobacco executives have agreed to pay about $15 billion in compensation to Texas for the cost of treating sick smokers under the Medicaid program.
- The state of Texas and the tobacco industry have reached a $15.3 billion settlement that would end the state's lawsuit against the industry. If U.S. District Judge David Folsom approves the deal, it will be not only the biggest payoff in the war between the states and the tobacco industry, but also the largest legal settlement in U.S. history. Folsom said he would need the weekend to read the lengthy document and would not make a decision until Tuesday.
- A federal judge Friday approved a $14 billion deal that settles Texas' lawsuit against the tobacco industry. Lawyers for cigarette companies and the state met with U.S. District Judge David Folsom for about six hours Friday to put the finishing touches on a deal reached Thursday. "We have a settlement. It is done," said Ron Dusek, a spokesman for state attorney general Dan Morales. Folsom was expected to formally sign the documents on Tuesday.
- Texas will get $15.3 billion over 25 years from the tobacco industry to settle its lawsuit over smoking-related health care costs -- a deal state officials Friday called the largest settlement in the history of U.S. litigation. The figure easily surpasses the combined $14.4 billion deals Florida and Mississippi negotiated with the industry last year.
- The state of Texas and tobacco companies reached a record $15.3 billion settlement Friday, but a federal judge held off accepting it until next week.
- Recent settlements between states and tobacco companies are in line with what proposed federal legislation will be when it is passed into law, according to CIBC Oppenheimer Corp. tobacco industry analyst Roy Burry. Texas officials agreed Thursday to a $15 billion settlement to end the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. "It's not a big deal for one reason and one reason only - the tobacco user, the cigar user, the pipe smoker and the cigarette smoker are going to pay the bill," Burry said Friday in an interview with CNBC. "We're talking about major, major price increases." Tobacco stocks were up earlier Friday, which Burry said reflects investors' enthusiasm for the settlements.
- Texas may have won a $15.3 billion settlement from the tobacco industry, but the battle is far from over. The issue of how to combat teen smoking is more complex and elusive. With $200 million of the settlement earmarked for an anti-smoking campaign and smoking prevention programs for minors, Texas legislators will be facing difficult decisions about how to tackle the teen smoking problem.
- Attorney General Dan Morales dismissed as ridiculous that the private lawyers representing the state might collect more than $2 billion for their role in winning a $15.3 billion settlement from the tobacco industry. "I think any discussion or speculation of fees in the multibillion dollar amount range is laughable," Morales said at a press conference Friday. "I think that the court is going to do something appropriate, something responsible."
- There's nothing like $2.2 billion in fees for trial lawyers to get Congress's attention. . . Lawmakers from Austin, Tex., to Capitol Hill seized on the issue, with some saying it may further erode support for the complex national tobacco deal Congress plans to take up when it convenes this month.
- News reports indicate the Texas trial attorneys who helped sue the tobacco industry will each get initial payments of $20 million and their final payments will be submitted for arbitration. Attorney General Dan Morales' decision to employ private attorneys in the state's case has been controversial from the beginning and some anti-smoking advocates are worried it could have negative national consequences as Congress prepares to take up the proposed national tobacco settlement.
- "We understand that the issue of attorneys' fees will receive much attention, but are confident it stands up to any and all scrutiny. We have agreed to have this matter determined by an independent arbitration panel, with payments under this system to be made by the tobacco companies over and above the settlement amount. At the same time, the contract between the trial team and the state of Texas is a valid contract that calls for a contingency fee far below the normal market rate. While this serves as a backstop in case problems arise in the arbitration process, we are confident that these will not transpire and that arbitration will take place as intended, and the industry will ultimately pay all attorneys' fees.
- Today's settlement with the State of Texas again demonstrates that the industry is prepared to cooperate with government and the public health authorities to discourage underage tobacco use.
- "Florida, Mississippi and now, Texas all serve to point out the need for swift action on the national settlement," said Gregoire. "It's also clear that every other state with a lawsuit against the industry should move full speed ahead with preparing for trial and that's exactly what this state is doing."
- The state of Texas' $15.3 billion settlement agreement with the nation's major tobacco companies will probably contain some unpopular features along with the obvious good, as any complicated 40-page legal deal is likely to do.
- There is nothing illegal or unethical about the settlement process, of course. Privately negotiated settlements of lawsuits are commonplace. . . We in the media, the staunch defenders of the public's right to know, also welcomed the prospect of a settlement. The closed-door settlement process, nevertheless, was worrisome because it compromised the principle of openness, an important characteristic of our democratic form of government that is increasingly under attack.
- Gov. George W. Bush and other state leaders are reacting cautiously to the $15.3 billion settlement of Texas' lawsuit against the tobacco industry. Bush, Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock and House Speaker Pete Laney indicated in a joint statement that they do not consider the settlement . . . to be a done deal. They said, "The old saying cautions against looking a gift horse in the mouth. However. this may be one gift horse that needs to be inspected very carefully."
- A Republican contender for Texas attorney general plans to file a lawsuit in state District Court in Austin Tuesday to stop lawyers from collecting massive legal fees earned from the state's recent settlement with the tobacco industry. John Cornyn, the former Texas Supreme Court justice who hopes to replace Dan Morales as the state's top attorney, calls the $2.3 billion that private attorneys stand to collect from the settlement "unconscionable."
- Agreement Sparks Legislative Battle Over How to Put the Funds to Use
- For Texas Attorney General Dan Morales, setting aside the first year's proceeds of a $15.3 billion tobacco settlement to bolster funding for children's health care -- including anti-smoking programs -- was a perfect fit. The decision, which has some other state leaders fit to be tied, reflects the strong public health considerations that prompted Morales to sue the tobacco industry two years ago. And it is his attempt to help compensate those in need for Texas' long history of ranking low among the states in funds spent on health-related programs.
- Tension grew Saturday between legislators and Attorney General Dan Morales as the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee accused Morales of playing politics with the Texas tobacco settlement in his decisions to give money to medical schools.
- $400 million going for research, treatment at Texas medical schools, cancer center
- Former Texas Supreme Court Justice John Cornyn said Monday he will file a lawsuit in state court today, hoping to stop Attorney General Dan Morales from paying more than $2 billion to the attorneys who represented the state in last week's tobacco settlement.
- A Republican candidate for attorney general says he will file a lawsuit to prevent private attorneys from collecting their 15 percent cut of Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. Former Texas Supreme Court Justice John Cornyn said today he will proceed with his suit although it is not certain that the five attorneys will get the full 15 percent, which would be $2.3 billion.
- Attorney General Dan Morales dismissed as ridiculous that the private lawyers representing the state might collect more than $2 billion for their role in winning a $15.3 billion settlement from the tobacco industry. "I think any discussion or speculation of fees in the multibillion dollar amount range is laughable," Morales said at a press conference Friday. "I think that the court is going to do something appropriate, something responsible."
- "We did some great lawyering in this case," he said. "Tobacco was very nervous about going to trial against me and this group." But O'Quinn said reports speculating that he and the other attorneys will actually share $2.3 billion -- a figure that has drawn fire from Gov. George W. Bush and other Republicans -- were inflated.
- A federal judge overseeing the settlement between Texas and the tobacco industry has yet to finalize the $15.3 billion deal announced last week. U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana said he does not want to enter his decision piecemeal. He instead plans to rule on the case all at once.
- Dallas County officials have joined the chorus of state lawmakers and political candidates who want to change portions Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. The county has filed a brief asking U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana to strike the spending plans called for in the agreement, arguing that Attorney General Dan Morales did not have the authority to make spending decisions.
- As a federal judge in Texarkana continued his review Tuesday of Texas' multibillion-dollar tobacco settlement, Dallas County joined lawmakers and politicians who want to change the deal. Dallas County and its hospital district filed a brief asking U.S. District Judge David Folsom to cancel spending plans under the agreement. The county and hospital district contend that legislators, not Attorney General Dan Morales, should decide how to disburse the settlement money.
- U.S. District Judge David Folsom delayed for one day his decision on whether to accept the state of Texas' $15.3 billion settlement agreement with the tobacco industry. The judge said he hopes to issue his ruling on the settlement Wednesday afternoon, when he also is expected to set lawyer fees in the case.
- "The court finds that the comprehensive settlement agreement and relief is in the public interest and should be approved," Folsom wrote in the order. "It results in a fair and equitable resolution of novel and difficult issues."
- Republican lieutenant governor candidate Rick Perry Thursday said if elected he will push legislation to ban contingency fees for lawyers who handle state lawsuits. Perry said that would end fees such as those to be received by the lawyers who handled the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry.
- Attorney General Dan Morales wants state lawmakers to use almost half of Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry to create a permanent health fund. Morales told the Senate Health and Human Services Committee today that the money should not be squandered on other programs _ such as highways or prisons _ when Texas children have so much need.
- Texas Attorney General Dan Morales says the state's $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry is being redrafted to address the concerns of state lawmakers. Appearing today before the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, Morales drew fire from Republicans who questioned his authority to spend some of the settlement money without legislative approval.
- Documents obtained Wednesday from Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with U.S. cigarette makers show that private attorneys working for the state will help pick the abitrators chosen to set their fees. The documents attached to the settlement show that the six Texas attorneys hired by the state, along with lawyers who have sued tobacco companies, will select two of three arbitrators to award attorneys' fees in the case. Cigarette makers will choose one arbitrator.
- A federal judge Thursday approved Texas' record $15.3 billion settlement with tobacco companies and sparked immediate controversy by awarding as much as $2.3 billion extra in fees to a group of private trial lawyers who assisted the state. U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana also enjoined two key legislators from petitioning the Texas Supreme Court to challenge Attorney General Dan Morales' decision to allocate $1.2 billion of the tobacco payments to health-care programs. Folsom called the settlement, the largest in U.S. history, "a fair and equitable resolution of novel and difficult issues."
- However, U.S. District Judge David Folsom said in his ruling that he will oversee how the money is distributed. "The federal court will retain complete, total and sole jurisdiction over all issues involved in this case," said Ron Dusek, a spokesman for Attorney General Dan Morales.
- [Sherry Matthews Advertising & Public Relations] last year won the Texas State Department of Public Health's new $300,000 tobacco education program, and its contract makes clear the agency will buy time and create advertising for any state anti-smoking effort, according to a department spokesman.
- It is troubling, as a matter of principle, for one state official to single-handedly decide how so much money should be spent. But Morales is right in one important respect: Texas woefully underfunds health care programs, especially those for poor children. He has seized an issue of crucial importance to the personal well-being of thousands of young Texans and the future economic health of the entire state.
- Morales deserves credit for bringing the state's successful suit against the tobacco companies. The state treasury and the health of its citizens will be better off. But Morales is not a physician or public health specialist. It's a shame he made spending decisions he was not qualified or constitutionally entitled to make.
- RJR Nabisco Holdings Corp. (RN) disclosed in a regulatory filing that it will pay $114 million in 1998 to cover its portion of the recently settled lawsuit brought by the state of Texas against the tobacco industry.
- But two lawmakers are now arguing that the court doesn't have the right to determine how the first year's payout of $1.2 billion is to be spent, claiming that distribution is the province of the Texas Legislature. If they're right, the hospitals might have to cut their budgets this year after all.
- Ripping into the $2.3 billion in legal fees awarded in the tobacco case, Gov. George W. Bush said Monday that the state may have to help pay the lawyers from its share of the tobacco settlement. His comments disputed Attorney General Dan Morales, who has insisted the private lawyers hired by the state will be paid separately by the tobacco industry and, perhaps, through federal funds.
- Gov. George W. Bush, citing "excessive" attorneys' fees of $2.3 billion, says his office may challenge the state's $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. Bush said, however, that he would not take any legal action until the courts have ruled on pending challenges of the settlement
- Attorney General Dan Morales wants a federal judge _ not the Texas Supreme Court _ to preside over state lawmakers' objections to Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. Morales said today that a lawsuit challenging portions of the settlement was "improperly" filed with the state Supreme Court.
- Two key legislators on Thursday asked a federal judge to delay the distribution of tobacco settlement funds to the state while they challenge Attorney General Dan Morales' authority to decide how $1.2 billion of the money should be spent. State Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, and state Rep. Rob Junell, D-San Angelo, chairmen of the Legislature's budget-writing committees, filed separate motions with U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texarkana and the Texas Supreme Court in Austin.
- The Legislature's chief budget-writers asked the Texas Supreme Court Thursday to order Attorney General Dan Morales to give up plans to funnel $1.2 billion of the state's tobacco settlement money to health-care programs. The filing, which could risk a rebuke from U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texarkana, Texas, seeks to force Mr. Morales to deposit that money into the state treasury so that lawmakers can decide how it is spent.
- Public hospitals in Texas thought their $151 million problem was solved when the tobacco industry agreed to settle its differences with the state out of court last week.
- Dissatisfaction with the state's tobacco settlement widened Friday when seven lawmakers asked the Texas Supreme Court to stop payment of about $2.3 billion to private attorneys representing the state. "The bottom line is that the attorney general was wrong as a matter of law in his decision to support an award of nearly $2.3 billion of the taxpayers' money to five, hand-picked plaintiffs attorneys," said state Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Marble Falls.
- As more legislators joined the fray over the tobacco settlement, Attorney General Dan Morales Friday accused Gov. George W. Bush's top political consultant of trying to delay the state's tobacco payoff. In a mostly polite, but sometimes pointed, letter to the governor, Morales also said Bush was wrong to criticize the $2.3 billion in legal fees awarded to private lawyers who helped the state obtain the record $15.3 billion settlement.
- Gov. George W. Bush has asked a federal court to halt the payment of $2.3 billion in legal fees for private attorneys who helped Texas win its $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. Bush said today he took the "unwelcome step of going to court to protect our taxpayers and to make sure the people of Texas get a full, fair and open accounting."
- Texas Attorney General Dan Morales has blasted Gov. George W. Bush for his decision to challenge the $2.3 billion in private attorneys fees awarded in the state's settlement with the tobacco industry. . . Today's filing is about one thing and one thing only _ a Republican presidential campaign and political contributions from big tobacco. "In my opinion, this reflects conduct unbecoming a presidential candidate. The governor's pandering to big tobacco is shameful. By today's action, our state's historic victory over big tobacco is placed in serious jeopardy."
- Morales lets state allot tobacco cash Stopping fight with lawmakers, attorney general agrees to send all tobacco payments to state treasury After more than two weeks of bickering and legal challenges, Attorney General Dan Morales bowed Wednesday to legislators' demands that they alone should decide how Texas spends its tobacco settlement money.
- Attorney General Dan Morales on Wednesday gave in to demands by legislators to deposit the state's entire tobacco settlement into the Texas treasury, clouding plans to spend $1.2 billion from the deal to build hospitals and fund other health care programs.
- Gov. George W. Bush challenged part of a $15.3 billion, state-brokered settlement with the tobacco industry yesterday, an action that Attorney General Dan Morales called "shameful" and possibly fatal to the lucrative agreement.
- Gov. George W. Bush has gone to federal court to try to block the $2.3 billion in fees that are supposed to be paid to the private lawyers who worked on the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. The Republican governor's lawsuit Thursday angered the Democratic attorney general, who said that it jeopardized the state's $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco companies and that it was politically motivated.
- Taking the offensive, Mr. Morales alleged that a court challenge to the legal fees Mr. Bush filed Thursday plagiarized tobacco industry court documents - evidence, Mr. Morales said, that the governor is doing the industry's bidding. "I was dumbfounded to learn the governor's legal arguments are identical to the arguments put forth by Philip Morris when they sued me almost two years ago . . . to attempt to prevent my office from filing suit against the tobacco industry," he said. . . "The industry's main reason for settling the Texas case was to increase its chances of passing the deal in Congress," said a lawyer involved in the Texas case. "If the industry's motivation is gone, who's to say they won't change their mind and try to back out of the Texas deal? By challenging the fees, Bush is leaving the door open for such a challenge."
- "In his brief, it's almost as though the governor Xeroxed a Philip Morris brief and put it on his stationery," Morales said. Hughes called that "ridiculous." "It was written by a lawyer in the governor's office in the middle of the night Wednesday night. He never even saw the other brief," she said. . . "The issue here is whether five outside lawyers deserve $2.3 billion of the taxpayers' money, and whether the attorney general overstepped his legal bounds by entering into a contingency fee agreement," the lawmakers said in a statement.
- Attorney General Dan Morales on Friday challenged Gov. George W. Bush to a public debate of their differences over the $2.3 billion to be paid private lawyers in the tobacco settlement. "I will meet the governor any place, any time," Morales said.
- Groups representing small businesses and those who say they oppose frivolous lawsuit are supporting Gov. George Bush's legal challenge to $2.3 billion in attorneys' fees stemming from the state's tobacco settlement. Robert Howden, state director of the National Federation of Independent Business, and Jon Opelt, executive director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, backed Bush on Thursday.
- Tobacco companies can continue sponsoring NASCAR races and other special events in Texas under an exemption written into the state's $15.3 billion settlement with the industry. The landmark settlement bars most tobacco advertising in Texas, including billboards at Texas Stadium and other venues. But exceptions written into the deal -- and similar settlements in Florida and Mississippi -- allow tobacco companies to keep their sponsorships, such as NASCAR's Winston Cup, and some signs and billboards.
- Collectively, the quintet has won more than $1 billion in verdicts against big industrial companies, helping bankrupt a few along the way. Individually, they've sued over defective breast implants, asbestos-related diseases, deadly oil company accidents - even "chemical AIDS." They also rank among the nation's most generous Democratic political donors
- By all measures but its size, the tobacco deal offers little different from the others. But its size has so angered lawmakers, their fury has grown beyond the tobacco case into nagging questions no doubt destined for the Legislature on the state's contigency fee deals for hiring lawyers altogether. . . Many legislators want to take away the attorney general's authority to negotiate these deals. Others question their need. Some are pressing the Texas Supreme Court to declare them unconstitutional.
- The federal government is getting involved in a dispute among Texas officials over the $2.3 billion owed to private attorneys who helped Texas get a $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. The Health Care Financing Administration has released a memo questioning Attorney General Dan Morales' assurance that the government might pay some of the legal fees.
- Federal officials plan to scrutinize the $2.3 billion in legal fees approved for the five private attorneys representing Texas in the state's tobacco lawsuit and may not pay what the state expects, according to a memo released Friday. The memo from the Health Care Financing Administration adds fuel to the already inflammatory issue of how much the state's private attorneys will be paid for their work leading to the $15.3 billion tobacco settlement
- Attorney General Dan Morales has asked a federal court to quash Gov. George W. Bush's attempt to intervene in Texas' settlement with the tobacco industry. Morales said today that Bush's court challenge of legal fees in the case was filed "inexcusably late" and could delay distribution of millions of dollars in settlement funds. Morales said, "I am opposed to any delay in the distribution of funds for the health care of our children while some bicker over how much the tobacco industry has to pay our lawyers. What I care about is getting health insurance to our kids as soon as possible."
- A report says Texas could lose nearly $1 billion this year if a national settlement with the tobacco industry wins congressional approval before challenges to the Texas settlement are resolved.
- Texas could lose up to $985 million this year if Congress approves a national tobacco settlement before legal challenges by Gov. George W. Bush and others to the state's own settlement with the industry are resolved, Attorney General Dan Morales says.
- Morales on Wednesday said Gov. George W. Bush has no standing to challenge the $2.3 billion in attorneys' fees stemming from the state's $15.3 billion settlement with the nation's tobacco industry. "Despite his title, the governor has no standing to intervene," Morales said in a legal response to a motion Bush filed in federal court to block the fees for the five attorneys who represented the state in the federal case. U.S. District Judge David Folsom in Texarkana approved the settlement and fees and will consider challenges to them.
- Gov. George W. Bush and state legislators were quick to rebut Attorney General Dan Morales' claim Wednesday that they are delaying the tobacco settlement and holding up money destined for children's health care.
- Diverting attention from a dispute over lawyer fees, Texas Attorney General Dan Morales blasted Gov. George W. Bush and other state officials Wednesday for delaying his efforts to spend tobacco money on health care for thousands of poor children. "I think Texans are going to want to know what in the world our leaders have been doing while these kids have been sick," Morales said.
- A $952 lunch, charter planes and rent for hotel space in New Orleans are among the expenses incurred by the private attorneys hired by the state to make its multibillion dollar case against the tobacco industry, documents obtained by the Star-Telegram show. Attorney General Dan Morales has used these costs -- which total $40 million -- to help justify giving the private attorneys involved in the case $2.3 billion, the largest legal payoff in U.S. history. The legal expenses are separate from the legal fees, which represent 15 percent of the total settlement reached in the case. Morales said the tobacco industry will pick up the tab for all of the fees and expenses.
- Representatives of Gov. George W. Bush had four telephone conversations with tobacco industry lawyers -- including a top tobacco negotiator -- shortly before and several days after Attorney General Dan Morales reached the historic settlement of the state's anti-tobacco suit. Morales, who is fighting Bush and several legislators over the size of legal fees awarded in the case, said Friday that the calls were "improper" and an attempt by the governor to weaken the $15.3 billion settlement.
- Gov. George W. Bush on Sunday challenged Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to agree to legally sever the squabble of how much lawyers representing Texas in its $15.3 billion tobacco settlement get paid from the main issue of how much the state gets paid.
- Having left Texas to attend the National Governors Association meeting, Gov. George W. Bush on Sunday continued to wage long-distance war with the state's attorney general, Dan Morales, over the recent tobacco settlement. Bush told reporters that he will send a letter to Morales today asking him to agree to separate the portion of the pact dealing with attorneys' fees from the bulk of the $15.3 billion deal.
- The dispute between Gov. George W. Bush and Texas Attorney General Dan Morales over the tobacco settlement expanded a bit Wednesday to include the governor's choice of lawyers. Margaret A. Wilson, who began work on Monday as Bush's new top staff attorney, took a shot from the attorney general's office because her former law firm represented one of the tobacco companies sued by the state. "This is more evidence of the governor's ties to Big Tobacco," Morales spokesman Ron Dusek said.
- The private lawyers who assisted the state in its $15 billion settlement with the tobacco companies should be paid the full $2.3 billion that the federal judge set in the case, 70 percent of the respondents to a statewide poll released yesterday said. But a spokeswoman for Gov. George W. Bush, who has filed court action seeking to reduce the lawyers' fees, said the survey questions were worded to elicit the pro- lawyer response.
- Governor proposes to separate issue of fees from pact The gulf between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Attorney General Dan Morales over the state's proposed $15.3 billion settlement with tobacco companies might be narrowing. A Morales spokesman said Monday that the attorney general was "encouraged" by a letter received earlier in the day from the governor, who is in Washington for the winter meeting of the National Governors' Association.
- If members of the Texas Supreme Court are feeling publicity-shy these days, they better be praying a federal judge doesn't toss the tobacco lawyers' case their way. Gov. George W. Bush and many tort reformers would like the Supreme Court, with its solid anti-trial lawyer reputation, to decide the legality of the $2.3 billion in fees awarded the private lawyers who helped Attorney General Dan Morales secure Texas' tobacco settlement. A lot of people don't expect U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana, who presides over the case and approved the fees, to give up any of his jurisdiction to the state court. But that is what Bush and a group of legislators, who belatedly have asked Folsom to let them intervene in the case, have asked him to do.
- Attorney General Dan Morales and Gov. George W. Bush have had a "cordial" meeting to discuss their differences over attorneys fees in Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. The two met today after Morales proposed they enter into a legally binding memorandum of understanding that would allow the record settlement to become final.
- Gov. George W. Bush has demanded that Attorney General Dan Morales provide him billing records, time sheets and other detailed documents covering work and expenses incurred by private trial lawyers in the tobacco case.
- The Marlboro Man soon will ride off into the Texas sunset, accompanied by R.J. Reynolds' Camel and the sassy ladies who advertise Virginia Slims. As part of Texas' historic $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry, the advertising icons will become extinct on billboards in the state within four months.
- A large majority of Texans approve of the $15.3 billion tobacco lawsuit settlement, but even more want to reduce the $2.3 billion haul for the private lawyers who handled the case for the state, according to a new poll. The Scripps Howard Texas Poll also shows Texans widely favor a new state law that severely punishes minors caught with tobacco, although more than half of those with an opinion doubt it will reduce teen-age smoking in Texas. A majority -- 64 percent -- of the 1,001 Texans surveyed admitted to knowing little or nothing about the state's tobacco lawsuit.
- Tobacco companies Monday threatened to scuttle their record settlement with the state unless a federal judge finds that the $15.3 billion agreement also protects them from smoking-related health claims that may be brought by local governments. Harris County, the Harris County Hospital District and numerous other local governments oppose a settlement provision that they fear would bar them from obtaining tobacco damages of their own.
- Attorney General Dan Morales will turn over to Gov. George W. Bush this week the billing records of private lawyers representing the state in its lawsuit against the tobacco industry -- although his books are incomplete.
- State and local officials said Tuesday that they have been unable to resolve their dispute over tobacco settlement funds, despite the threat it poses to the record agreement. . . But the dispute received renewed attention on Monday, when tobacco companies threatened to scrap their agreement with the state unless the deal also protects them from smoking-related health claims brought by local governments.
- Morales today accused Bush and "various front groups for the tobacco industry" of politicizing and misrepresenting the record settlement. In a letter to U.S. District Judge David Folsom, Morales said Bush and the others are wrongly claiming that the court doesn't have the authority to determine reasonable attorneys fees in the case, and that the court failed to adequately review and require justification for the $2.3 billion legal fee.
- The private attorneys who helped Texas fight Big Tobacco ran up $1.75 million in expenses in 1996, including a $952 lunch and $1,995 to charter an airplane. Then the real spending started. The expense accounts for the lawyers and their staffs have ballooned to almost $40 million since Texas Attorney General Dan Morales stopped requiring itemized reports at the beginning of 1997. Now Gov. George W. Bush is demanding a full accounting. The situation is just one of several complications that could cause the state's $15.3 billion settlement with the industry to fall apart.
- Texas business people, including a major civil justice reform group, turned up the heat on the lawyers' fees in the tobacco case Thursday with a mailout contending taxpayers are "getting burned" in the deal. Attorney General Dan Morales' office said information in the mailing was inaccurate and misleading. The brochure is being sent to thousands of Texas business leaders by a newly formed, Houston-based group called Texans for Responsible Legal Fees, which sides with Gov. George W. Bush and several legislators in their fee dispute with Morales. The group is headed by businessman John Butler, a former member of the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority board and former commissioner of the Texas Department of Transportation. . . Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which has successfully lobbied the Legislature for limits on civil lawsuits and judgments, is a member of the new group. So are the Texas Association of Business & Chambers of Commerce and Citizens for a Sound Economy.
- Texas counties and hospital districts pressing for a cut of the state's tobacco settlement are trying to negotiate an agreement before Friday in order to avoid jeopardizing the entire $15.3 billion deal.
- The federal judge overseeing Texas' record-breaking $15.3 billion settlement with Big Tobacco has opted to split hearings scheduled this week for legal challenges to the deal. U.S. District Judge David Folsom will first consider a complaint on Thursday from Gov. George W. Bush and seven state legislators who say private attorney legal fees of $2.3 billion are exorbitant. On Friday, Folsom is scheduled to hear the second complaint made by county hospitals frustrated that they have treated patients suffering from tobacco-related illnesses, but are not guaranteed any money from the state' s deal.
- A key legislator said Tuesday that he has given up trying to negotiate a compromise between the state and local governments over how to share proceeds from the tobacco settlement. State Sen. Bill Ratliff's decision to throw in the towel came three days before several counties and hospital districts were scheduled to argue before a federal judge that they have a stake in the $15.3 billion agreement.
- Could you spend $38.3 million in one year? Five lawyers retained by Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to help in the state's tobacco lawsuit did. Now, the burning question in legal circles is: How?
- On Thursday, U.S. District Judge David Folsom will hear three challenges that have delayed consummation of the $15.3 billion agreement to settle the state's tobacco lawsuit. Ron Dusek, press secretary for Attorney General Dan Morales, said the tobacco industry's first payment to the state, $278 million, is being held in escrow while the disputes are pending.
- A textbook legal dispute over how to pay the lawyers has evolved into classic political discord with accusations by Morales against Bush, plaintiffs' lawyers against tort reformers and Democrats against Republicans.
- Texas Attorney General Dan Morales Friday told a federal judge that Gov. George W. Bush and business groups were politicizing and misrepresenting the court's approval of the tobacco settlement. Morales took the unusual step of writing a letter to U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana one day after several business leaders announced the formation of a new public relations campaign against the $2.3 billion in legal fees set in the case.
- U.S. District Judge David Folsom repeatedly asked yesterday why Gov. George W. Bush hadn't previously challenged the controversial tobacco fee agreement in the nearly two years since it was announced in 1996.
- The tobacco companies threatened to "blow up" the entire $15.3 billion settlement if the state officials' attempt to cut the fees is successful. And the federal judge in the case said the premise of the officials' challenge is "not founded on recognized law."
- The tobacco industry said Thursday it will scrap a $15.3 billion settlement with Texas if a dispute over attorney's fees means paying more money directly to the state. "That's unacceptable and that's no deal," said lead attorney Dan Webb, who represents Philip Morris. "We're not going to let the state of Texas screw this deal up in such a way that we have to pay more money."
- Lawyers for Texas Gov. George W. Bush asked a federal judge on Thursday to withhold payment of $2.3 billion in legal fees for Texas' record $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry.
- The simmering dispute between Gov. George W. Bush and Attorney General Dan Morales over attorney fees in Texas' $15.3 billion tobacco settlement is being played out in a Texarkana federal court. Bush's lawyers argued before U.S. District Judge David Folsom today that Morales did not have the authority to enter into a contingency fee agreement with the private attorneys that helped Texas get the settlement.
- tate legislative leaders and county officials are at an impasse over how to divide the state's $15.3 billion tobacco settlement, and a key lawmaker said yesterday that the dispute could scuttle the landmark deal. "The Legislature is being asked to save what I believe is a fatally flawed settlement, and I am not comfortable with that," said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bill Ratliff.
- A tobacco industry lawyer has told a federal judge that Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with cigarette makers will be nullified if local governments are allowed to file their own lawsuits against the industry. Attorney General Dan Morales today sided with tobacco lawyers on the issue, saying, "The counties' demands for special treatment under this settlement agreement places the entire agreement in jeopardy."
- A federal judge Thursday defended his award of $2.3 billion to the state's outside lawyers in the tobacco case but delayed a decision on efforts by Gov. George W. Bush and seven legislators to reduce the fees. U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana also questioned why it took Bush and the lawmakers two years to challenge the 15 percent contingency agreement with Texas Attorney General Dan Morales, on which the lawyers' payments are based. "The court was pretty well aware of what went on in time and effort in this case," Folsom said during a daylong hearing on the controversy.
- "This is an unconscionable reversal of policy and procedure and statements made before this court."
- "We have looked at the law in light of the judge's previous rulings. . .and have come to the conclusion that all of the state, including its subdivisions and citizens, were part of the lawsuit," said Harry Potter, the special assistant attorney general in charge of the tobacco litigation for Mr. Morales.
- Attorney General Dan Morales abruptly reversed position Friday by agreeing with tobacco companies that their $15.3 billion lawsuit settlement blocks local governments from filing their own claims against the industry. Robert Ries, an attorney representing Dallas, Harris and El Paso counties and hospital districts, called the about-face "shameless" and "shocking" and urged the judge to disallow it. . . But on Friday, an attorney representing Morales, Greg Thompson, told the court, "We were wrong in our understanding of the law." After the hearing, Special Assistant Attorney General Harry Potter said the attorney general was representing all Texas residents, and that the residents could not collect twice for the same damage -- first through the state settlement and then through a local-government claim.
- Attorney General Dan Morales on Friday called for a constitutional amendment to channel the $15.3 billion from the tobacco lawsuit settlement into a public health endowment. That way, he said, the Legislature would be prohibited from spending the money on anything other than public health.
- Attorney General Dan Morales says the $15.3 billion tobacco settlement with Texas allows the state to "chart a new course of public health." Morales told the annual Texas Legislative Conference in New Braunfels today that the money gives future legislatures the "luxury and unique opportunity" to assure the health and well being of generations of Texas children.
- Harris County has accepted an offer by Richard Mithoff, a well-known local plaintiff's attorney, to help the county in its bid to win a share of the state's $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. Mithoff, a partner in the firm of Mithoff & Jacks, offered to help the County Attorney's Office for free in the case, although the county will pay him $10,000 for legal expenses. Commissioners Court approved the agreement Tuesday afternoon at the request of County Attorney Mike Fleming.
- Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH may not be wrapping himself in a tobacco leaf, as Attorney General DAN MORALES has charged. And Morales may not be a pawn of the trial lawyers, as Morales' detractors would have the people of Texas believe. But both the Republican governor and the Democratic attorney general have been guilty of missteps and misstatements that have added fuel to their raging dispute over lawyers' fees in the state's settlement with cigarette companies.
- The possibility that the tobacco companies will abandon the out-of-court settlement they reached with Texas on Jan. 16 drew an adamant denial from an industry spokesman Wednesday. However, lawyers involved in the case and Wall Street analysts said the industry has lost one of its primary incentives to complete a Texas settlement:
- The proposed national tobacco settlement may be in trouble, but Texas Attorney General Dan Morales says the tobacco industry's $15.3 billion deal with Texas remains secure. However, Morales says today it is crucial to finalize the record agreement, which is being challenged by Gov. George W. Bush and several Texas counties and hospital districts.
- But beyond the parochial politics of Texas is a larger question of legal ethics - one that is certain to crop up in the dozens of states that plan to take the tobacco industry to court. What is an appropriate fee for lawyers who invest their time and, in some cases, millions of dollars to prepare state lawsuits? "If you think that the market system works, then you can let people bid for the services that they want," says Jeffrey Harris, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Alternative schemes, such as arbitration or pay-by-the-hour, may be attractive now that states seem to have a chance of beating beleaguered Big Tobacco, "but they don't reward lawyers according to the risk they incur."
- The Texas attorney general's office has moved boxes of documents out of the gymnasium of the former Pinewood Hospital in Texarkana now that the state has reached a settlement with the tobacco industry. Ron Dusek, a spokesman for Attorney General Dan Morales, says . . . the documents have been shipped to a warehouse in Houston.
- This much is clear: Texas is on the hook to Uncle Sam for $15,000 a day in income taxes while state leaders haggle over the terms of a huge tobacco settlement and delay it from becoming final. After that, things get a little hazy.
- Democratic challenger Garry Mauro is blaming GOP Gov. George W. Bush for $824,000 the state paid in federal taxes because its $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry has not been completed.
- Attorney General Dan Morales is blaming Gov. George W. Bush for an $824,000 federal tax bill on a portion of the state's $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry.
- As a result of legal challenges that have delayed the state's tobacco settlement, Texas paid $824,000 Wednesday to the IRS that it otherwise wouldn't have owed. Under federal tax law, the state will continue to owe $15,000 a day until the deal is finalized, Attorney General Dan Morales said. Mr. Morales blamed Gov. George W. Bush, Republican attorney general candidate John Cornyn and others for delaying the settlement. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cornyn blamed the attorney general.
- Bush, lawmakers who oppose $2.3 billion deal expected to appeal any court defeat or sue
- Texas gets the benefit of those provisions in the Minnesota settlement that reach further than Texas negotiated because of a so-called most-favored-nation clause in the Texas deal, said Ward Tisdale, a spokesman for Morales.
- State legislators fighting Attorney General Dan Morales said Friday that the outside lawyers who helped Morales secure Texas' tobacco settlement deserve less than $200 million, not the $2.3 billion awarded by a federal judge.
- Thanks to a few well-placed words in Texas' tobacco litigation settlement, the state could be in for an unexpected multibillion-dollar windfall from cigarette makers.
- Attorney General Dan Morales said Wednesday that Texas could get $2 billion more from U.S. cigarette makers in new settlement negotiations that also would try to sidetrack the political issue of how much attorneys will get paid. The extra money would be on top of a $15.3 billion settlement that already is the largest in history.
- Texas could receive about $2 billion more from the tobacco industry under negotiations to change their deal, Attorney General Dan Morales said Wednesday.
- Counties' and hospital districts' efforts to obtain a share of Texas' $15.3 billion tobacco settlement remained alive Tuesday after a meeting with a federal judge.
- Attorney General DAN MORALES has advised the tobacco industry that Texas requires more money and other enhancements in its $15.3 billion settlement with the nation's cigarette makers. Morales met with industry lawyers in New York today to formally invoke a "most favored nation clause" that was negotiated into the record settlement.
- The private plaintiffs' lawyers awarded $2.3 billion in legal fees in the Texas tobacco case proposed cutting the fees by as much as 65 percent to settle a legal challenge by Gov. George W. Bush, according to a person close to the state's lawyers.
- "There is nothing legally questionable. It's an absurd allegation, and there's nothing to back it up with," Morales spokesman Ward Tisdale said.
- Houston lawyer Joe Jamail said Thursday that Attorney General Dan Morales proposed "legally questionable and suspect" conditions when Morales considered hiring Jamail to represent the state in the anti-tobacco lawsuit. Jamail's comments were in a sworn affidavit filed with a federal judge to support efforts by seven state legislators to question Jamail in a dispute over legal fees awarded in the tobacco settlement.
- Attorney General Dan Morales has asked a federal judge to assess $25 million in sanctions against Gov. George W. Bush and seven state lawmakers who are challenging Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry.
- "It's not bad enough we have to fight the tobacco industry, now we have to fight our own governor,'' Morales said.
- Attorney general denies he asked lawyers for money to protect him from tobacco industry
- Several of the private attorneys interviewed by Attorney General Dan Morales to join Texas' case against Big Tobacco were asked to give $1 million each to create a legal defense fund in case the industry sued him, according to court documents filed Thursday. Attorney Joe Jamail, in documents filed in U.S. District Court in Texarkana, said Morales offered him the position of lead attorney in the tobacco case in a 1995 meeting, but he turned it down when Morales proposed the fund.
- The five private attorneys who pressed the state's case against Big Tobacco said they would accept less money, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Texarkana by Attorney General DAN MORALES. The reduction in fees decision "occurred through informal discussions and was to be mediated by two U.S. 5th Circuit Appeals Court judges. But in a last-minute ploy, the Governor refused to participate in the mediation," Morales wrote in a letter entered in to court records on Monday and addressed to state Sen. JUDITH ZAFFIRINI, D-Laredo
- If Houston attorney Joe Jamail has information that Attorney General Dan Morales improperly solicited millions of dollars in the tobacco case, he should be allowed to tell his story under oath, a spokeswoman for Gov. George W. Bush said Monday.
- We are in the midst of a splendid bout here, one of those Everyone-Looks-Ridiculous rounds of political fisticuffs for which our state is nationally recognized. This all started with a famous victory in January: the state of Texas won a whopping, record-setting $15.3 billion settlement from the tobacco companies for all the Texans who have gotten sick from smoking and had to be cared for by the state. Nice going, team. But the thrill of victory lasted about 10 minutes before the ugly greed scrum started.
- Attorney General Dan Morales has repeatedly lied and tried to "bully" the governor and other state officials in the dispute over tobacco legal fees, seven legislators told a federal judge Tuesday. Angry over Morales' effort to slap them with multimillion-dollar penalties, the lawmakers responded with some of the strongest language yet in the 4-month-old controversy.
- "The facts are that the governor has not refused to negotiate or mediate," Austin lawyer Pete Schenkkan, who represents the seven legislators, told the judge overseeing the settlement in a filing this week.
- Lawyers for Gov. George W. Bush say Attorney General Dan Morales' motion for sanctions against the governor in the state's tobacco case is "entirely without merit."
- Bush should complete the negotiations -- including a 20- year payout for attorney fees -- and declare victory. Enough is enough. This should not drag on. . . Attorney General Dan Morales argues that Bush's reluctance to resolve the issue is tied up in presidential politics. A planned fund-raiser for him that includes tobacco lobbyists as hosts adds credence to Morales' charges. The time has come to settle.
- The group Doctors Ought to Care urged Gov. George W. Bush and seven state legislators to press their legal challenge of the fees, which were awarded to five private attorneys who handled the state's lawsuit against the tobacco industry. . . DOC founder Dr. Alan Blum of Houston said the public deserves to know just what work the lawyers did and what expenses they rolled up during the nearly two years the federal case lasted. "In Texas, the biggest piece of the settlement pie seems to be going to the private lawyers hired by the attorney general," Blum said.
- Attorneys familiar with the proposed settlement said Tuesday the two sides are working out an agreement that would allow the state's deal with the tobacco industry to become final. It would also permit the state's lawyers to seek direct payment of their fees from the cigarette makers after an arbitration panel meets later this year and allow the lawyers to renew their fight in court if they are dissatisfied with the amount awarded. It would also give Mr. Bush the right to oppose any further demands by the lawyers for money from the state.
- Attorney General Dan Morales' office said late Wednesday that a renegotiated tobacco settlement, resolving the sticky issue of how much lawyers will be paid and how much more cigarette makers will pay Texas, appeared imminent. But lawyers for five counties and hospital districts who have sued to be included in the original deal say they are worried that any new deal won't resolve their concerns.
- Attorneys for HARRIS COUNTY intend to sue major U.S. tobacco companies -- and probably the state of Texas -- in an effort to gain a larger share of any settlement. . . County Attorney Mike Fleming and private attorney Richard Mithoff say $400 million for all Texas counties -- a figure discussed by state legislators -- would be far too little.
- A newspaper says negotiators for Gov. George W. Bush and Attorney General Dan Morales have agreed to postpone their battle over attorneys fees in Texas' $15.3 billion tobacco settlement. The Austin American-Statesman said today the agreement, which also includes the private attorneys, would clear the way for Texas to begin receiving money from the record settlement but set aside the divisive legal fee issue until November.
- What was not clear by the end of the week was who was responsible for halting what seemed to be a sure-fire deal to waylay objections about $2.3 billion ordered paid to private lawyers hired by the state. But sources pointed to Republican attorney general candidate John Cornyn's refusal to sign off on the pending deal as one factor in halting an agreement by Attorney General Dan Morales, Gov. George W. Bush and seven legislators to postpone challenges to the legal fees.
- Attorney General Dan Morales says the tobacco industry has paid an additional $100 million of its Texas settlement into an escrow account. The deposit brings to more than $382 million the amount currently being held in the account, awaiting the record $15.3 billion settlement approved in January to become final.
- Cornyn said Monday in a statement that he would withdraw his objections to the settlement -- the largest in U.S. history -- but that he still could investigate the contingency fee arrangements Morales used to hire private attorneys to sue the tobacco companies. Cornyn has said Morales had no authority to promise the attorneys a cut of the deal without legislative approval. "I am withdrawing my lawsuits to remove General Morales' last bogus excuse and stop him from holding hostage millions of dollars from cigarette makers that should be flowing in the state's coffers," Cornyn's statement said.
- A Republican attorney general candidate has withdrawn his legal challenge of the $2.3 billion legal fee awarded in Texas' $15.3 billion settlement with the tobacco industry. JOHN CORNYN's decision clears the way for an agreement on the legal fee issue, which has had Gov. GEORGE W. BUSH at odds with Attorney General DAN MORALES since the first of the year.
- Lawyers on all sides of the pending $15.3 billion Texas tobacco settlement have been called to meet Monday with the federal judge supervising the litigation in what appears to be the judge's push to finish negotiations in the case. Several of the people called to Texarkana said U.S. District Judge David Folsom had told them to bring their suitcases. Folsom chuckled Friday at the suggestion he may lock the lawyers and two state legislators in a room to work out agreements on sticking points that are holding up a finished deal.
- The cigarette makers agreed at a meeting Wednesday in New York to pay the state an extra $2.28 billion after it signed a more lucrative agreement with Minnesota, said lawyers involved in the case. In turn, Texas Attorney General DAN MORALES and other state officials plan to resolve another obstacle by giving the extra money to the 254 counties in the state to help pay for their smoking-related health-care expenses, officials said. Lawyers said the tobacco settlement's final roadblock - the fight over attorneys' fees - may be settled Thursday
- Parkland hospital, which struggles to find money to treat thousands of indigent patients every year, just got some unexpected good news: Changes in the Texas tobacco settlement this week could mean up to $20 million a year for the hospital.
- Lawyers representing Texas counties and public hospital districts carried away an agreement Tuesday on their potential deal-breaker issue in legal wrangling over the $15.3 billion Texas tobacco settlement. But lawyers left town under orders from U.S. District Judge David Folsom not to discuss the agreement until county commissioners and hospital district boards voted on it.
- The tobacco industry would pay $2.2 billion to Texas' 254 counties for health care costs associated with smoking under a tentative agreement reached Tuesday between negotiators for the counties and state lawmakers. The payments to the counties would be in addition to the $15.3 billion settlement the state won from the tobacco industry, said lawyers for Harris and Dallas counties.
- The settlement between Texas and the tobacco industry is finally a done deal and it's now worth $17.6 billion, not the $15.3 billion reached six months ago. Attorney General Dan Morales negotiated the extra money this week, under a clause he said ensured that no state would get a better deal than Texas. . . . It means that Big Tobacco has agreed to pay four states -- Texas, Florida, Minnesota and Mississippi -- a total of $39.1 billion to settle lawsuits filed to recover money spent on treating sick smokers.
- An agreement on how to go about paying the state's hired-gun lawyers who prepared the case against the tobacco industry has cleared the way for Texas to get the first $350 million of the landmark settlement, the largest civil award in U.S. history.
- The last hitch in Texas' historic tobacco settlement was resolved Thursday, leaving only unfinished paperwork between the state and the first installments of its 26-year, $17.6 billion payoff. Lawyers hired by the state two years ago to sue cigarette makers persuaded a former colleague of Texas Attorney General Dan Morales to back off his unexpected bid for special treatment of his legal fees.
- An impasse over lawyers' fees in the $15 billion settlement between Texas and the tobacco industry was broken yesterday, clearing the way for what sources say will be a $28 million windfall for the Tarrant County Hospital District.
- Attorney General Dan Morales and lawyers for Gov. George W. Bush have agreed to sever the issue of attorneys fees from Texas' $15.3 billion deal with big tobacco, allowing the record settlement to become final.
- "If I never have to go back there, it's OK with me," he said. But Mr. Morales should have fond memories of the Big Apple. During a 24-hour visit last week, he picked up a $2.28 billion check for Texas counties, secured a record payday for a group of trial lawyers and settled a nasty squabble with Gov. George W. Bush.
- The tobacco industry reached a final settlement with the state of Texas over its lawsuit to recover its public health-care costs connected to smoking, agreeing to pay $17.6 billion instead of the $15.3 billion agreed upon in January. The final settlement also resolved the question of attorneys' fees, which are now to be determined by a three-member arbitration panel.
- The Montgomery County Hospital District has approved a tentative settlement to its intervention in Texas' $17.75 billion lawsuit against the U.S. tobacco industry.
- A Texas group opposed to exorbitant legal fees is questioning Harris County's agreement with private attorney Richard Mithoff, who stands to make as much as $27 million for his three months of work on the county's case against the tobacco industry. Ken Hoagland, a spokesman for Texans for Reasonable Legal Fees, a Houston-based business group, said $27 million "seems excessive."
- The Texas tobacco war officially ended Friday when U.S. District Judge David Folsom of Texarkana signed off on final compromises involving the state, the tobacco industry, counties and the state's lawyers. . . The settlement will trigger a flow of $17.3 billion to the state, counties and hospital districts over the next 25 years. The issue of how much the industry must pay the state's private lawyers who were hired to handle the suit was turned over to an arbitration panel that will meet in November. The first payment of almost $400 million should be paid to the state within a month, Morales said, with a total of $1.3 billion to be paid this year. The final settlement of $17.3 billion includes $15 billion, which the Legislature will decide how to spend
- "We are at the end of what has been a very long and grueling but very gratifying and fulfilling process," Texas Attorney General Dan Morales . . "It would be my hope that this block of money would be invested over the course of the term of the next 25 years in such a way as to allow Texas to move from the back of the pack up to the front" in health care, he said. .
- Harris County will pay attorney Richard Mithoff $10 million for his work in securing a $2.2 billion settlement of Harris' and other counties' claims against the tobacco industry. Under Mithoff's contract, he could have been paid as much as $27 million -- a figure that sparked some criticism as being excessive for three months' work. But Mithoff agreed to negotiate a lower payment with County Attorney Mike Fleming, and the two agreed Friday on a figure of $20 million.
- MCLENNAN COUNTY officials say they won't be earmarking the county's $3.3 million portion of a recent state settlement with the tobacco industry until the money is in the bank. But County Judge JIM LEWIS said the county probably won't allot its entire share for health care, despite the state's wish for counties and hospital districts to use the money for indigent health care costs.
- Part of the U.S. tobacco companies' settlement with Texas will help Travis County balance its books, even though the money is recommended for indigent care. Travis County plans to use its first tobacco settlement installment, estimated at $1.7 million to $2 million, to pay itself back for using other funds to erase part of a projected fiscal year 1999 budget deficit, officials said. Texas' agreement with the tobacco companies recommended that the money be used to reimburse counties for indigent health care, but does not dictate how the money should be spent.
- KENNETH J. CHESEBRO, who has law offices in Austin and Boston, filed a notice late Monday in a Texarkana federal court that says he plans to challenge the state's out-of-court settlement with the cigarette makers reached in January and made final last month. In a one-page court document, Mr. Chesebro said he objects to a specific paragraph in the order written by U.S. District Judge David FOLSOM that prohibits anyone who opposes the settlement from filing a legal protest in any court other than Judge Folsom's in Texarkana. In his filing, Mr. Chesebro said he plans to file his appeal with the 5TH U.S. CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS in New Orleans.
- The state's bank balance is 385-Million dollars fatter. That's the first payment Texas received after a last minute legal challenge to the court settlement of state claims against the tobacco industry was settled. The state is to receive more than a BILLION dollars this year, and a total of more than 17-BILLION over the next two dozen years. Counties will receive a portion of the money for their hospital district costs associated with treating the health effects of smoking.
- Austin attorney Kenneth Chesebro's decision not to pursue his appeal of the settlement means that $335 million, being held in a trust account, can be turned over to the state as an initial payment. Morales said procedures have started to have the money in state coffers today.
- In a filing late Monday, lawyer Kenneth J. Chesebro gave notice to the U.S. District Court in Texarkana, where Texas filed its tobacco lawsuit, that he would appeal the settlement to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Chesebro contended in the filing that a provision of the settlement illegally prohibits citizens of Texas or people doing business in the state "acting completely independent of any party" from challenging the tobacco settlement in any court other than the one in Texarkana.
- A national arbitration panel awarded a Houston lawyer
and close friend of Texas Attorney General Dan Morales $1 million from tobacco companies for his work in the Texas cigarette case -
$518 million less than he was seeking. The amount opens the door for attorney MARC MURR to seek additional money - up to $259
million - from the state's $17.3 billion tobacco settlement reached in January. A lawyer for Mr. Murr said he was disappointed in the award
but that no decision had been made on whether to ask for more money. . . The state's five primary trial lawyers, who were awarded $3.3
billion, will get $200 million Tuesday. The remainder of the money will be paid over the next two decades.
- Attorney General-elect John Cornyn said Thursday he plans to investigate how a
close friend and political fund-raiser of outgoing Attorney General Dan Morales sought as much as $519 million from the Texas tobacco
lawsuit. And Gov. George W. Bush, who recently learned that a state arbitration panel had already guaranteed Houston lawyer Marc Murr
$260 million of that total, said he was "very troubled to learn about secret meetings that could result in multimillion-dollar commitments to
the state of Texas."
- The panel, appointed jointly by the cigarette makers and a group of trial lawyers,
deliberated 15 hours Thursday in Washington, D.C., before agreeing to give the five Texas attorneys 19 percent of the $17.3 billion settlement
reached earlier this year, lawyers said. . . The award for the five primary Texas trial lawyers is nearly $1 billion more than the original contract
of 15 percent afforded them. But it is considerably less than the $6 billion to $25 billion that they requested last weekend.
- Gov. George W. Bush said Tuesday he is
troubled that a group of arbitrators has decided Houston attorney Marc Murr, an adviser in Texas' lawsuit against tobacco companies,
deserves close to $260 million in fees. . . "As I have said from the beginning, I will not allow the taxpayers of Texas to be on the hook for
attorneys fees in the tobacco case," Bush said. "I will fight any effort by any lawyer in the tobacco case to collect money from the taxpayers
of Texas."
- Houston attorney Marc Murr, once dubbed the
"stealth lawyer" in the Texas tobacco litigation because of his uncertain role in the case, deserves almost $260 million in fees that would
otherwise go to state coffers in the next 25 years as part of its multibillion-dollar tobacco settlement, a special group of arbitrators has
decided.
- Who is Marc Murr, and why is he
trying to collect a $1.5 billion legal bill from the tobacco industry? . . In a conference room at New York's Palace Hotel on Saturday, people
in attendance say, Mr. Morales made an impassioned argument for Mr. Murr, who was unfamiliar to some of the tobacco-industry
attorneys and even to some plaintiffs' attorneys. Mr. Morales hailed the 42-year-old Mr. Murr as his "co-pilot," one who provided critical
strategic advice . . . Mr. Morales then asked the panel to award Mr. Murr 1.5% of the Texas settlement award. The Murr fee request is apart
from a previously reported $25 billion petition from five other Texas law firms . . . Mr. Morales's request floored tobacco-industry
lawyers
- Texas' always controversial tobacco
settlement has become more controversial as plaintiffs' lawyers who represented three states against cigarette makers trained their guns on each
other in an effort to get as much as they can of a $500 million yearly cap on attorneys' fees.
- "It's so far out of
proportion that it's silly," said John P. Coale, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., whose seven-lawyer firm stands to receive a portion of
the fees being paid by the tobacco industry. Coale said he was not at the meeting but had heard about the proceedings from "several people
who were there." Gov. George W. Bush, who sought to scale back the lawyers' original request for $2.3 billion in fees, also was
nonplused.
- At a closed hearing at a New York City hotel last
weekend, the attorneys shocked other national tobacco lawyers by telling a fee arbitration panel that they deserve between $6 billion and
$25 billion for their work on Texas' behalf, according to people who attended the meeting.
- In a
closed-door meeting Saturday in New York, people who were present say, the Texas attorneys presented formulas to support their case
that the five law firms that represented the state should be paid nearly 10 times the $2.6 billion they had asked for just last month. . .
The lawyers representing the state of Texas are Walter Umphrey, Harold Nix, John O'Quinn, Wayne Reaud and John Eddie
Williams.
- 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.
- Another big
unknown is the $1.7 billion that Texas will receive over the two-year budget period from its $17.4 billion settlement with the tobacco
industry. Although lawmakers have vowed to try to spend the tobacco windfall on anti-smoking efforts and public health initiatives,
there is no requirement to do so. "The tobacco money has no strings attached to it. It can be used freely in lieu of general revenue," said
one state official involved in budget negotiations. "It's whatever principles the Legislature wants to use."
- On Dec.
17 the San Antonio City Council unanimously endorsed a resolution urging that a $200 million children's cancer hospital be built
here, to be paid for from Texas' multibillion-dollar settlement with the tobacco industry. . . How can they, on the one hand, endorse a
children's cancer hospital, yet give a wink and a nod to smoking in public places? . . Don't they see the hypocrisy in embracing the
health-care goals of the children's cancer hospital while allowing business as usual for the tobacco industry, whose products cause
cancer?
- Morales' testament to his tobacco victory,
a 24-page glossy brochure mailed to perhaps 700,000 people two weeks before he left office, left his critics wondering and screaming foul at
what they see as a public relations campaign bought with more than $170,000 in taxpayers' money. . . Morales, a Democrat, sent the pamphlet --
titled "The Texas Tobacco Lawsuit Victory: What it Means to the People of Texas" -- to people across the state with a Dec. 15 cover letter
explaining: "This brochure was written to provide you with an overview of the issues and an explanation of the terms of this historic
settlement."
- Just two weeks
before his term ended on Dec. 31, Mr. Morales's office mailed more than 700,000 copies of a 24-page glossy brochure touting the $17.3
billion tobacco settlement his office completed in July. The brochure, which makes 19 references to Mr. Morales, details the history of the
litigation and describes how the money will be spent on public-health initiatives. . . "The purpose of this self-congratulatory brochure is to
tie a nice, bright ribbon around one of the smelliest back-room deals in this state's history," says Ken Hoagland, spokesman for the
Houston-based Texans for Lawsuit Reform.
- Gov. George W. Bush ignited the latest spark in
Texas' tobacco lawsuit Friday, promising to resist state-hired private lawyers' efforts to delay deciding whether to collect attorneys' fees from the
state. "I am appalled at the nerve of lawyers who have been awarded an exorbitant fee yet refuse to honor their agreement and let our taxpayers
off the hook," Bush said. In a motion filed Dec. 30, the lawyers told the federal judge supervising the $17 billion settlement that they needed
more time so they could consult with Attorney General John Cornyn.
- Texas cities, counties and hospital districts will get an
early taste of the state's huge settlement with the tobacco industry when their share of a special $300 million fund arrives. The Texas
comptroller's office put the checks in the mail Wednesday. The City of Austin's share will be a check for more than $8 million.
- Cities, counties and hospital
districts finally are reaping the rewards of the historic tobacco settlement ‹ with $300 million deposited this week in local coffers throughout
the state. . . For the San Antonio and South Texas areas, the money is significant. Bexar County's University Health System received $20.9
million. That's compared with Harris County's $50 million payment and Dallas County's $33 million.
- 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.
- Lawyers for the cigarette makers said Wednesday
that they consider the recent $3.3 billion fee award to the five Texas trial lawyers to be "totally outrageous and unjustified." But the
company lawyers also said attempts by Mr. Cornyn and Gov. George W. Bush to claim about $1 billion of those lawyer fees for the
state would violate the terms of the settlement.
- New Texas Attorney General John Cornyn said Tuesday
that he is investigating the trial lawyers who won $17.3 billion for the state in the historic tobacco case last year for possible criminal
wrongdoing and unethical conduct. Mr. Cornyn has indicated to colleagues that he may seek the return of almost one-third of the $3.3
billion the five prominent plaintiffs' lawyers were awarded last month by a tobacco industry-funded arbitration panel, according to
people close to the litigation and Mr. Cornyn.
- 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 $17.3 billion Texas
tobacco litigation is destined for another stop in federal court to find a way to settle the festering dispute over how much the five private
lawyers hired by the state should be paid. At issue: Attorney General John Cornyn, who has been on the job for two weeks, has announced
an investigation of the lawyers' conduct. He says they might have acted illegally or unethically in representing the state. If he were to allege
wrongdoing, he could sue the lawyers, who were hired by his predecessor. If he were to win, he could strip them of any fees in the
case.
- Houston lawyer Marc Murr, who was awarded $1 million for representing Texas in tobacco litigation, is the subject of an investigation by
state Attorney General John Cornyn into civil and criminal wrongdoing in the case, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- The lawyer, John Eddie
Williams of Houston, suggested that Attorney General John Cornyn should be thanking the lawyers, rather than investigating them.
"This is the largest (legal) recovery in history, and one secured from the most successful litigants in history -- the tobacco companies,"
Williams told Cornyn in a letter.
- Texas veterans say
that the military encouraged them to smoke and that if anybody deserves a share of the state's $17 billion tobacco lawsuit settlement,
they do. The Texas Coalition of Veterans Organizations, which reports a membership of 600,000, said it will lobby the Legislature for a
$400 million slice of the tobacco settlement. They said the goal is to build as many as 42 nursing homes statewide to care for aging
veterans.
- The cease-fire is over and hostilities
have resumed with a vengeance in the conflict, now that Dan Morales is a memory and his Republican replacement, Attorney General
John Cornyn, is on board. Cornyn, in office only a few weeks, announced Jan. 12 he has begun an investigation of the tobacco litigation
to determine if civil or criminal wrongdoing has been committed. The announcement came after the five lawyers refused to release their
right to seek more fee money from the state by the Dec. 30 deadline.
- Millions of dollars received by Tarrant County
from landmark tobacco litigation will be used this year to reduce hospital district red ink, not for anti-smoking programs or to create new health
services. And some counties are planning to spend their tobacco windfall on projects unrelated to health care, such as jails and roads.
- The University
Health System will appoint a 15-member committee to help it decide how to use a $21 million windfall from the state's tobacco lawsuit
settlement. Board members said Tuesday that they already have developed a list of prospects for the committee and expect to make their
choices later this week.
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