Florida Top Court Focuses on Tobacco Class Action
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Florida Supreme Court judges on Wednesday questioned attorneys for smokers and cigarette companies on whether a case involving thousands of smokers can properly be tried as a class action.
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A lawsuit accusing tobacco companies of   defrauding smokers into thinking "light" cigarettes were safer   than regular brands can proceed as a class action, a federal   judge in New York ruled on Monday.
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A federal judge in Tennessee has granted class-action status to a 2006 case against heavy construction vehicle maker Caterpillar Inc regarding insurance benefits, the lead attorney representing more than 4,000 retirees and surviving spouses said on Friday.
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A Supreme Court that has been defending states&#39; rights and supporting a law-and-order agenda finds itself in a quandary. A medical marijuana case the court heard Monday pits the two interests against each other.
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Top tobacco companies urged a federal judge Friday to put her landmark judgment against the industry on hold and let them keep selling "light" and "low tar" cigarettes until they've had a chance to appeal.
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A divided U.S. federal appeals court  panel on Wednesday expressed skepticism about whether the  government had the power to force cigarette makers to pay  billions of dollars in past profits as part of its racketeering  case against the industry.
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TALLAHASSEE - A bitter legal battle over whether the husband of a brain-damaged woman should be allowed to remove her feeding tube against the wishes of her parents reached the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON - The nation's biggest tobacco companies worked together for decades to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking, a federal lawyer alleged Tuesday at the start of a civil racketeering trial in which the government seeks a record $280 billion from the industry.    In his opening statement, Justice Department attorney Frank Marine said starting in the 1960s the industry spent hundreds of millions of dollars on organizations set up to counter the growing body of scientific evidence linking smoking to cancer...
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A federal judge in Tennessee has granted class-action status to a 2006 case against heavy construction vehicle maker Caterpillar Inc. regarding insurance benefits, the lead attorney representing more than 4,000 retirees and surviving spouses said on Friday.
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The Supreme Court yesterday overturned a nearly $80 million verdict intended to punish the Philip Morris tobacco company for endangering the lives of smokers, and the justices set limits on how jurors can decide to make big business pay for wrongdoing.
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A smoker who accused tobacco companies of jacking up cigarette prices to recoup billions of dollars they pay each year to U.S. states lost a federal court appeal on Wednesday.
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A $280bn (Â£156bn) government lawsuit against the largest cigarette manufacturers in the United States begins on Tuesday with both sides confident of victory.
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The US Supreme Court said Friday it would consider whether smokers of cigarettes marketed as "light" could sue the makers for deception on the grounds that they were just as harmful as regular smokes.
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A lawsuit accusing tobacco companies of  defrauding smokers into thinking "light" cigarettes were safer  than regular brands can proceed as a class action, a federal  judge in New York ruled on Monday.
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The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a class-action lawsuit against Philip Morris should not be decided in federal court, handing a defeat to the tobacco company.
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A closely divided Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a $79.5 million punitive damages award won by the widow of a longtime smoker against Philip Morris.
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TALLAHASSEE - Lawyers for as many as 700,000 ill and dying smokers urged the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday to restore a record-shattering $145 billion verdict against the tobacco industry, or at least a portion of it.