Big Tobacco Loses Again

John Hopkins

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Big Tobacco had sought a transfer of all cases currently filed in federal courts, to a Multi-District Litigation Panel that would be located in the Middle District or Southern District of the federal court system in Florida. Today the United States Multi-District Litigation Panel issued an order that denied Big Tobacco's request for transfer and ruled that the cases can be properly handled where they are currently situated.

What does this mean for thousands of Florida victims of smoking? It means a victory of significant proportions. Big Tobacco had hoped to force the federal cases into multi-district litigation and then attempt to assert control over the state court actions by arguing that the state courts should not control the discovery process. Rather, Big Tobacco wanted to force all the conduct of discovery into the control of the federal court.

The thought of fairer minds is that Florida residents injured by Big Tobacco's manipulation and marketing of cigarettes should be allowed to litigate their cases in state court, before their own state court judges. Big Tobacco, on the other hand, preferred the hope of slowing the process down and being able to assert more control over how quickly injured victims can have their day in court.

Today, the courts spoke out for the injured victim.