Tobacco.org

• Tobacco Suit Trial Will Be Held in March  

The trial for personal injury tobacco cases will be moved to Ohio County and tentatively begin in March, Ohio County Circuit Court Judge Arthur Recht told lawyers on both sides Thursday.

The trial will be the second part of the tobacco litigation, the first of which, a medical monitoring case, was completed in 2001. The second part deals with personal injury cases against the major tobacco companies, including Philip Morris USA, Brown and Williamson Holdings, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. More than 1,000 individual cases have been filed against those companies.

Recht said the trial will be handled in two phases, with the first phase asking the jury to decide if cigarettes are a defective product and if they are reasonably safe for the purpose for which they are intended. Jurors also will be asked to consider if the conduct of the tobacco companies justifies punitive damages. The first phase of the trial is scheduled to begin March 21, running from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. four days a week until it is completed, Recht said.

"Not everyone will be totally happy with this, but we have to start somewhere," he said.

Kenneth McClain, representative of the plaintiffs in the case, voiced his concern with the trial being moved to Ohio County, as did Timothy Barber, who said he believed Recht was only moving the trial to Wheeling for his own convenience.

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