Florida Tobacco Lawsuit Attorney

Cigarettes kill, and they cause irreparable damage to smokers. When companies put profits ahead of your welfare, they should be responsible for compensating you for the harm they cause.

Personal injury lawyer Austin Carr has over 23 year’s experience assisting clients like you who have been harmed by big business greed. He represents persons who suffer from illnesses cause by addiction to cigarettes, as well as families of people who died from the effects of cigarette smoking.

A recent Florida Supreme Court decision (Engle v. Liggett Group, Inc.) is allowing persons who have experienced symptoms of certain medical conditions before November 21, 1996 to file claims against tobacco companies, and recover damages if those individuals’ illnesses are eventually found by a jury to have been caused in part by tobacco use.

Specifically, the court found that smoking cigarettes causes aortic aneurysm, bladder cancer, cerebrovascular disease, cervical cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, coronary heart disease, esophageal cancer, kidney cancer, laryngeal cancer, lung cancer (specifically, adenocarcinoma, large cell carcinoma, small cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma), complications of pregnancy, oral cavity/tongue cancer, pancreatic cancer, peripheral vascular disease, pharyngeal cancer, and stomach cancer.

The Florida Supreme Court also affirmed the following common liability findings in its December 21, 2006, opinion in Engle v. Liggett Group, Inc., etc., et al., which were as follows:

 

(i) Nicotine in cigarettes is addictive; (ii) the defendants placed cigarettes on the market that were defective and unreasonably dangerous; (iii) defendants concealed or omitted material information not otherwise known or available knowing that the material was false or misleading or failed to disclose a material fact concerning the health effects or addictive nature of smoking cigarettes or both; (iv) defendants agreed to conceal or omit information regarding the health effects of cigarettes or their addictive nature with the intention that smokers and the public would rely on this information to their detriment; (v) all defendants sold or supplied cigarettes that were defective; (vi) all defendants sold or supplied cigarettes that, at the time of sale or supply, did not conform to representations of fact made by said defendants’ and (vii) all defendants were negligent.

 

The Supreme Court of Florida, in Engle has already determined that these facts are binding in your favor to support a potential claim you have for tobacco injuries. These findings in favor of the Engle Class can stand.

Individual claims will need to be filed by persons or their surviving family if they are deceased to prove causation and damages in each individual instance. The deadline for filing these claims is January 11, 2008. However, all claims should be filed as soon as possible.

Please contact Board Certified Trial Law Specialist Austin Carr for a free consultation to discuss your tobacco lawsuit. He wants to help you obtain the compensation you deserve.