Jump to full article: St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch, 2010-09-03
Author: HEATHER RATCLIFFE
Intro: Do you have some time on your hands?
That's what the St. Louis Circuit Court is asking in 6,000 surveys mailed to potential jurors during the past month.
It's part of selecting 12 city residents, plus alternates, to hear what is expected to be the city's longest civil jury trial here in memory.
This billion-dollar tobacco-related case is scheduled to begin in January and could last six to seven months, officials said.
The jury supervisor's office mailed the questionnaires in four batches, beginning in August. Responses have begun trickling back to the courthouse.
The results will help Judge Michael David weed out people for whom the trial length would pose hardships. Those may include health problems, child care, work or travel commitments. . . .
The tobacco companies say the hospitals were not the ones damaged by cigarettes so they cannot collect money for someone else's health problems, according to court documents.
Experts expect it to set precedents for similar cases across the country, as it is the only one of its kind to leap some legal hurdles that killed more than 160 similar cases in courts across the country.
The hospitals are seeking to recover losses for patients treated since 1993, which is potentially $1 billion.
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