Tobacco.org

• State: Who gets tobacco funds? 

Three tobacco companies, Phillip Morris, Lorillard and Liggett, put $710-million in an escrow account and promised to give the money to the plaintiffs whether they won or lost on appeal.

In exchange, the Rosenblatts agreed to allow the tobacco companies to appeal and not challenge the constitutionality of the law that capped the bond. . . .

The money is up for grabs by potentially thousands of Floridians who can prove they became sick from smoking before Nov. 21, 1996.

Miami Circuit Judge David C. Miller has set March 31 as the deadline to hear from lawyers, potential claimants and anyone else with interest in the money. He also scheduled an April 15 hearing as a starting point to determine who will get the money and to establish a mechanism for disbursing it.

Besides striking down the judgment in 2006, the Supreme Court also decertified the class of plaintiffs, those 700,000 Florida smokers and their relatives, represented in the lawsuit.

But it gave members of the class until Jan. 11 to file individual lawsuits

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