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The Intersection Among Torts, Science, Corporate Law, Insurance & Bankruptcy

GlobalTort

Kirk Hartley

Apr 9, 2014
1 min

Will Tobacco Kill a Billion People in the 21st Century?

Business Insider brings together 12 powerful charts on the death toll and other harms from tobacco. Some say tobacco will kill 1 billion people in the 21st century. It’s a shame most governments fail to focus on the actual, biggest global terrorists. #Tobacco

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Kirk Hartley

Apr 8, 2014
1 min

Will Tobacco Kill a Billion People in the 21st Century?

Business Insider brings together 12 powerful charts on the death toll and other harms from tobacco. Some say tobacco will kill 1 billion people in the 21st century. It’s a shame most governments fail to focus on the actual, biggest global terrorists. #Tobacco

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Kirk Hartley

Apr 4, 2014
1 min

Big Tobacco’s Engle Appeals Continue at SCOTUS

Big tobacco is continuing its effort to undo Engle through appeals to SCOTUS. Last fall, big tobacco launched yet another attack. Now, LAW360 reports that 10 new cert petitions were filed this week. The article starts out: "Big Tobacco launched an offensive Friday in the U.S. Supreme Court against Engle progeny litigation, asking the court to determine whether the companies’ due process rights were violated when members of the landmark class action were allowed to use finding

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Kirk Hartley

Dec 5, 2013
1 min

Big Tobacco Moves More Massively into the Russian Marketplace – No Fear of Russian Lung Cance

Big tobacco continues to expand its global spreading of death and cancer, this time with Phillip Morris and Japan Tobacco making major new investments in Russian tobacco sales. A cynic might think big tobacco does not fear increases in lung cancer litigation in Russia. Besides, even if lung cancer litigation does surge in Russia in 30 years, the profits already will be long gone. And, the potential asbestos defendants there (such as Uralbest) probably will follow the US mo

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Kirk Hartley

Oct 23, 2013
1 min

150 Cases Involving Lorillard’s Kent Micronite Filters with Crocidolite Fibers

A new Mother Jones article by Myron Levin provides a cogent summary of the Kent filter story, with links to some interesting old ads run by big tobacco and some other source documents. Claiming against Lorillard seems to be increasing; according to the article: "While there’s no official count, records and interviews suggest that mesothelioma claims since the 1980s number in the low hundreds at least. Lorillard’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission show that i

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Kirk Hartley

Oct 2, 2013
2 min

More Progress on Pinpointing Lung Cancers Caused by Smoking

Although researchers generally are not interested in litigation, their insights continue to have implications for toxic tort litigation. For example, a recent paper in Oncogene reports on Mayo researchers identifying a mutation biomarker related to one form of lung cancer in smokers. Mayo’s press release is here. The abstract for the paper states the following regarding the observed mutation: "ASCL1 is an important regulatory transcription factor in pulmonary neuroendocrine (

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Kirk Hartley

Sep 23, 2013
1 min

American Cancer Society Joins in Supporting Tobacco Class Action

Toxic tort litigation continues to evolve. The American Cancer Society is supporting deceptive marketing class actions against big tobacco. The story – and an amicus brief – are online here. #Tobacco

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Kirk Hartley

Aug 6, 2013
1 min

Tobacco Takes Another Hit – Punitives Awarded in Case Arising from a Person Who Started in Te

Another Florida verdict against big tobacco, with a $ 22 million award of punitive damages. The claims involved a woman who started smoking in her teens and died at 38. The plaintiff’s evidence is said to have focused on big tobacco targeting teens. Here is an article with several links to other articles with additional specifics. #Tobacco

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Kirk Hartley

Jul 29, 2013
2 min

Ireland’s Goal – “Smoke Free” (Relatively Speaking) in 12 Years

Imagine – a smoke free country in Europe. That’s the 2025 goal of the Health Minister in Ireland, although the goal actually is not completely smoke-free and instead is to have smoking down under 5%. Plainly, governments and others are actively realizing that they cannot afford to continue to subsidize the absurdly high financial and human costs of an industry that sells death and disease. The online story includes the following key quotes: Lyndsey Telford – 25 July 2013 HEAL

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Kirk Hartley

Jul 12, 2013
1 min

Tobacco Loses Another Appeal After Losing at Trial

It’s always good to see big tobacco lose a trial verdict or an appeal. The latest loss is described here – in a California appellate court. #Tobacco

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Kirk Hartley

May 10, 2013
1 min

Canadian Province Tobacco Trial Marches Forward – The Defense Loses Most Every Motion

A new post on Eye on the Trials provides a concise summary of the tobacco companies losing a series of defense motions launched at the conclusion of the plaintiff’s case, including a motion to dismiss for lack of evidence. One hopes big tobacco continues to lose on all issues. It’s well past time to end the massive economic and human harms caused by smoking. In my view, virtually all employers (including my law firm) subsidize big tobacco in several ways. For example, employe

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Kirk Hartley

Feb 20, 2013
1 min

“A smoking gun in lung cancer epigenetics” – NCI’s New Press Release

Scientists continue to close in on fingerprints to show when, why and how cigarette smoke causes lung cancer. The latest paper takes the evidence another step down the path towards objective fingerprinting of cancers caused by cigarette smoke. The press release is online here, and pasted below: The full article is online at no cost. Public release date: 15-Feb-2013 Contact: Jillian Hurst press_releases@the-jci.org Journal of Clinical Investigation A smoking gun in lung cancer

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Kirk Hartley

Feb 1, 2013
1 min

Second Hand Tobacco Smoke – Examples of Proof of Exposure

Objective, quantifiable science continues to prove the widespread impacts of tobacco smoke. This new study establishes second hand smoke inhalation in a car even when the front windows are wide open. #Tobacco

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Kirk Hartley

Dec 18, 2012
3 min

Big Tobacco Loses New York Trial on Lung Cancer Claims Brought by An Estate

Big tobacco recently suffered a significant loss in a cigarette smoking trial in federal court in New York (White Plains). The suit involved claims by the estate of a man who started smoking before turning 18, and prior to the Surgeon General’s warning. The jury awarded damages for the death, and also found fraudulent concealment of material information regarding smoking. The verdict sheet is online here. Set out below is the full text of the press release from plaintiff’s

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Kirk Hartley

Dec 16, 2012
6 min

Secrecy Runs Amok – Tobacco Companies Obtain an Order Suppressing A List of Tobacco Lawsuits (

Secrecy in litigation: good, bad or otherwise? Court orders for secrecy sometimes raise difficult issues and one understands a sealing order. Other times, the secrecy appears completely undeserved. A recent example of apparently undeserved secrecy is playing out in Canada in connection with tobacco companies seeking insurance payments for their expenses in defending tobacco cases. The unfolding story arises from a blog known as Eye on the Trials. The blog provides a daily sum

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Kirk Hartley

Nov 8, 2012
2 min

Fingerprinting a History of Cigarette Smoking Through Epigenetic Changes

For asbestos litigation defendants, a recurrent fear is facing waves of lung cancer claims that we would today say are completely or mainly caused by cigarette smoking. Accordingly, most lung cancer claimants face interrogatories and deposition questioning about whether, how much and how long they smoked. Over time, science may also answer the questions, as suggested by research work discussed this week at one of the UK’s pre-eminent conferences the NCRI Cancer Conference. Ho

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Kirk Hartley

Aug 15, 2012
1 min

Australia’s Supreme Court Upholds Law Requiring Plain Labels for Cigarettes

Australia’s Supreme Court issued an order – but not yet a full opinion – upholding the constitutionality of a law requiring plain paper labels for cigarettes. The court thus rejects the claim that there is a "right" to use flashy packaging to sell the carcinogens commonly known as cigarettes. Common sense prevails. #Tobacco

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Kirk Hartley

Jul 26, 2012
1 min

Government Tobacco Case to Move Forward in New Brunswick

A trial judge in New Brunswick has ordered the various tobacco defendants to answer New Brunswick’s complaint by August 20. The complaint was filed in March 2008 after the passage of enabling legislation. #Tobacco

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Kirk Hartley

Jul 6, 2012
1 min

Phillip Morris Loses Again on the Appeal from a Large Post-Engle Verdict

Tobacco.org and LAW360 brings news that big tobacco has once again lost on appeal in another large verdict in a post-Engle case. The case is captioned as Philip Morris USA Inc. v. Lucinda Naugle, and the opinion is here. In the case, the trial judge had reduced the verdict to $36.8 million after the jury originally had awarded $ 56.6 million in compensatory damages and $ 244 million in punitive damages. Three holdings from the appellate court are key, and indicate why futur

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Kirk Hartley

Jun 12, 2012
2 min

Racing to the Bottom – Illinois Legislators Continue Efforts to Protect Big Tobacco

The Madison County Record has the story on Illinois’ GOP legislators leading the charge to help protect big tobacco against big bonds in appeals with proposed legislation specific to tobacco companies. Apparently big tobacco is not satisfied with rule changes the Illinois Supreme Court made to allow discretion on the size of bonds after massive verdicts. The effort has failed so far, but will be back. In view of Illinois’ massive pension payments crisis, a cynic might think

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