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Florida Tobacco Class Action Lawsuit - What it Means for Smokers.
Recent news has come to pass regarding the Florida tobacco lawsuit, and while on its face, the decision of the Florida Supreme Court may seem like a negative result for smokers past and present, in reality this Florida individual tobacco claim decision could create an opportunity for individual smokers to bring tobacco companies to justice.
You’ll see in the details provided below how Florida tobacco litigation decision came to be, how the dangers of smoking have been defined in a legal sense, and the time limits for filing a claim in regards to Florida smoking-related cancers.
Supreme Court Ruling on Florida Smoking Lawsuit.
In what has come to be known as the “Engle class action lawsuit,” the Florida Supreme Court ruling on the Florida smoking lawsuit contains several items of note. The core issue was the court’s review of a $145 billion judgment against the tobacco companies that was awarded by a jury. A substantial amount of the Engle Class Action smoking lawsuit award was geared towards punitive damages, and the Supreme Court ruling on the Florida cigarette smokers lawsuit stated that the amount was excessive. The court also de-certified the class action that was in place, which basically meant that the plaintiff class could not simply re-file the action.
Although this was a significant statement, what the Florida Supreme Court tobacco ruling smoking lawsuit did not say was equally important. The court did not state that Florida individual smoking lawsuits could no longer be pursued, and it did not say that the tobacco companies weren’t responsible for exacerbating the dangers of smoking. In fact, the Florida Class Action Ruling stated the opposite.
The Court’s Statement on the Dangers of Smoking
Part of the Florida Supreme Court’s analysis of this case did not involve the issue of the amount of damages or the validity of the Florida tobacco class action in a procedural sense. In its review of the evidence, the Supreme Court made a definitive and highly significant Florida tobacco ruling in regards to the dangers of smoking.
Smoking-related diseases
The Florida Supreme Court stated that there are, in a legal sense, smoking-related diseases that exist from use of tobacco products. These diseases/conditions include:
- aortic aneurysms
- bladder cancer
- cerebrovascular disease
- cervical cancer
- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
- coronary heart disease
- esophageal cancer
- kidney cancer
- laryngeal cancer
- lung cancer
- complications of pregnancy
- oral cavity and tongue cancer
- pancreatic cancer
- peripheral vascular disease
- pharyngeal cancer
- stomach cancer
Therefore, as a matter of law, the dangers of smoking now include the diseases listed above. “As a matter of law” means that in the future, the courts in Florida will not need to consider whether or not smoking causes these conditions. The causation between smoking and these conditions will result in an assumption that these issues have been proven and included in the evidence, substantially reducing the burden on the Engle class action smoker plaintiffs.
This means that future individual plaintiffs will not have to incur additional stress and a huge amount of expense hiring experts to testify to the fact that smoking causes dangerous diseases. The importance of this finding cannot be overstated.
Time Limits for Filing a Claim in Florida
However, there is still one additional and potentially complicated issue to keep in mind. Every law has what is called a “statute of limitations” in place, which means that parties who have suffered harm have only a certain amount of time to file a claim before that party no longer has a right to pursue it.
Legislatures put time limits for filing a claim in place over time in order to promote fairness, as the longer the period of time between an event that causes damages and the ultimate filing, the more difficult it will be to provide worthy evidence and to hold the proper parties responsible.
In the case of smokers in the Engle case ruling, the statute of limitations could possibly begin to run at different times depending on your particular situation. Some may see that the time limits for filing a claim begin to toll as soon as you began smoking, while other official bodies may see it as beginning at the time you discovered a smoking-related health problem.
What does this mean for you? It means that if you are or have been a Florida cigarette smoker, you need to contact an attorney immediately. An experienced trial attorney will be able to explain to you how your situation falls under the question of time limits for filing a claim, and he or she will also be able to guide you through the legal process of holding these corporate giants accountable for the disease and death their products have brought to the American public.
As you can see, a lot has been happening in Florida, and it relates to those who have suffered health problems as a result of smoking in Florida and just about anywhere else. It’s time to bring these tobacco companies to justice. Contact an Engle class action tobacco lawyer and get your Florida individual tobacco lawsuit started today.
