Tobacco Litigation :: essays research papers

THE BATTLE OF MINNESOTADocument Discovery In The1997 Minnesota Tobacco Litigation. I. INTRODUCTIONAlthough any legal observer would tell you the prospect long loomed on the horizon, on July 14, 2000, when a Florida control panel handed down a perceptiveness of $144.8 billion dollars against the s until now major tobacco companies , the mental shock of hearing such a estimate was still staggering. It remains unclear as of this writing exactly how much of this massive verdict will ever be collected by the plaintiffs - a behemoth class of Florida smokers - injured by the products marketed, manufactured and sell by the defendants. In the days immediately following the judgement, the tobacco assiduity carried on business as usual and even the companies stock prices remained mostly unchanged . Irrespective of the minimal immediate financial and social make of this judgment, the legal implications for the tobacco industry, the plaintiffs bar, and the state and federal government activity entities presently bringing suit for tobacco related harms, cannot be overemphasized. The Florida judgment, the largest in civil legal history, although unique in its payoff, was only one more(prenominal) chapter in the long and still unfolding saga of American tobacco litigation. subsequently many years of successfully fighting count slight wars in the knowledge base of civil mass torts, Goliath had fallen, and although he was far from dead, he could no longer afford to laugh at the prospect of the mesh in front him. The husband and wife legal team of Stanley and Irene Rosenblatt had successfully felled an opponent that, less than a decade earlier, had toppled even the best and brightest of the plaintiffs bar. The Florida plaintiffs arsenal, however, was modify with the unique and powerful ammunition of countless confidential documents passed between the defendants employees, and even their legal counsel. Without a slingshot full of these stones, Goliath was unlikel y to shed fallen, and the manner, and legal justification for how they were introduced into evidence remains a controversy of cracking legal significance. For even now, as the practical and legal ramifications of the Florida case and judgment remain unclear, many legal scholars are still busy debating the outcome of a prior legal battle, without which the Florida judgment never could have occurred the battle of Minnesota. II. Tobacco Litigation - A History of The Three brandishsA. The First Wave (1950 - 1980)For ease of reference, the history of tobacco litigation is usually summarized into three waves.