The attorney general charges cigarette makers violated racketeering, fraud, and conspiracy laws. A class-action lawsuit in Miami. Thousands of flight attendants say they became sick because of secondhand smoke. A verdict could come in October. October trials in Philadelphia and Jacksonville.
Individual smokers claim companies knowingly sold defective products that caused illness.
A January trial in Minnesota. Critical litigation, expected to reach the US Supreme Court, in a federal appeals court in Richmond, Va. over FDA authority to regulate cigarettes and cigarette advertising. But industry lawyers say that from now on, all cases will go to trial. The settlements came when the industry was courting attorneys general to preserve their proposed global settlement and its protection against future class actions. Now, with the settlement apparently eclipsed in Washington, Big Tobacco may have no option but to fight.