Specific Types of Tobacco Litigation

• Addiction Cases
  Plaintiffs seek damages because of their alleged inability to stop smoking, or in order to help them stop smoking.  Most cigarette smoking and health cases include an addiction claim, but only those in which the plaintiff's claimed injury is an inability to quit smoking are considered an addiction type of case.
• Class Action Cases
  Individuals who assert claims on behalf of a defined group of individuals file a lawsuit that intends to be "representative" of that group.  The group is usually made up of smokers who allege that they have contracted diseases that are associated with smoking.  Read More >
• Contribution Cases
  Plaintiffs are private companies (to date asbestos companies, their trustees or their insurers) who seek a lump-sum award to compensate them for the damage awards they have paid to individuals who also were allegedly injured by cigarette smoking.
• Department of Justice (DOJ) Tobacco Lawsuit
  In 1999, in United States District Court in Washington, D.C., the Department of Justice filed suit against the domestic tobacco industry: (i) seeking a medical cost recovery for federal funds spent to treat alleged tobacco-related illnesses and (ii) asserting RICO violations.  The medical cost recovery claims have been dismissed and only the RICO charges remain.  Read More >  
• Environmental Tobacco Smoke Cases ("ETS")
  Individuals who have never smoked cigarettes, or never smoked regularly, allege that they have been exposed to secondhand cigarette smoke of others and have been diagnosed with diseases that are statistically associated with smoking.

• Fire Cases
  These cases also are known as ignition propensity or self-extinguishing cigarette cases and involve plaintiffs who allege that an unattended cigarette caused a fire that resulted in injuries.
• Florida Flight Attendant Cases
  The Broin class action was filed on October 30, 1991, by attorneys Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt in Miami’s Dade County Circuit Court.  The class was defined as “all nonsmoking flight attendants who are or have been suffering from diseases and disorders caused by their exposure to secondhand cigarette smoke in airline cabins.”  Read More >
• Individual Smoking and Health Cases
  Plaintiffs allege that they or their decedents have been physically injured as a result of smoking cigarettes.  This was the first type of case filed against the manufacturers and remains the most commonly filed case today. Read More >
• "Lights" Class Action Cases
  Unsuccessful in their efforts to certify tobacco class actions involving personal injury, some plaintiffs' attorneys have filed a new kind of class action against major cigarette manufacturers based upon their sale of Light cigarettes. Read More >
• Post Master Settlement Agreement Cases
  Plaintiffs seek a different allocation of the funds that were made available to states as a result of the Master Settlement Agreement.  Plaintiffs in these cases do not allege physical injuries as a result of smoking.
• Reimbursement Cases Filed by Governments, Insurers and Other Groups
  Plaintiffs seek to recover funds that are paid to treat individuals for health problems allegedly caused by smoking.
• Small-Claims Court Cases
  Damages in these types of cases are capped at a maximum amount, although that amount differs from state to state.  Attorneys normally are not allowed to participate in court in these cases even though the cases normally are tried in court, often with only a few weeks notice.
• “Synergy” Cases
  Plaintiffs allege that cigarette smoking and exposure to other substances caused their diseases.  Most cases to date have involved asbestos companies as co-defendants, but there have been cases involving chemical companies, breweries, distilleries and manufacturers of other industrial products.
• Third-Party Cases
  Individual personal injury cases in which the tobacco companies are sued by one of the other defendants, such as an asbestos company, because the plaintiff’s injuries also were allegedly caused by cigarette smoking.