[Intl-tobacco] Tobacco wars 'will spread to UK' (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Tobacco wars 'will spread to UK'
UK companies should be ready for a fight, say campaigners
Source: BBC Online, Saturday, 7/15/00

=09The legal ruling to make US tobacco firms give huge pay-outs to
sick smokers will spark similiar cases in Britain, say anti-smoking
groups.

Five major US tobacco companies say they will fight the decision, which
ordered them to pay $145bn (=A396.6 bn) in punitive damages to sick Florida
smokers.

A case against two UK tobacco companies, abandoned last February, was an
attempt to open the floodgates for thousands of lung cancer victims to
make claims.

But now British lawyers and claimants will almost certainly be spurred on
by the US jury's decision, say campaigners.

Clive Bates, director of Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) said: "We had
a setback in the UK last year when a class action failed.

"But the big law firms will be looking at the United States and thinking,
'If it can work there it will work here'.

"There are astronomical amounts of money involved and it will spur a big
law firm to back a 'no win-no fee' action against the tobacco firms in the
UK, I have no doubt about that."

Case up in smoke

A multi-million pound lawsuit against Britain's two major tobacco
companies - Gallaher and Imperial Tobacco - was abandoned in the High
Court last February, when the solicitors pulled out.

The collapse of the case last followed the judge's refusal to allow a
selection of test claims - which had been launched outside the legal time
limits - to go ahead.

=09=09=09Thousands of smokers could be encouraged to make
claims

Claimants were faced with the prospect of taking the case to the Court of
Appeal but, with legal costs mounting into millions, the "no win-no fee" =
=20
solicitors Leigh Day & Co and Irwin Mitchell decided to pull out.

The court action was based on the argument that the companies knew, or
ought to have known, cigarettes they sold to the claimants between the
1950s and 1970s contained far more tar than was reasonably safe.

It was believed the companies should have taken action to reduce health
risks.

'Enormous blow'

Gallaher and Imperial Tobacco, which between them have an 80% share of the
UK market and employ several thousand people, maintained their denial of
liability.

Clive Bates says the US ruling will be "an enormous blow" to UK companies,
and something they will not be able to "talk their way out of" easily.

But Martyn Day, senior partner in Leigh Day & Co, said: "I would love
Clive to be right, but we see no sign that any other firm is coming
forward.

"One big problem with the system is that if you lose you are liable for
the defendants' costs.

"They were =A315m and the one way we stopped the 50 plaintiffs being
bankrupted was to undertake not to bring another case until 2008.

"So are there any other firms prepared to come forward? We haven't seen it
so far.

"It is quite clear that legal aid is not available. It cost us =A32.5m and
got us nowhere.

"Clearly the rewards can be great - in the States you have lawyers seen to
make massive wealth - but here the best you can do is double what you
would get with another case."

Lawyers for the tobacco companies involved in the American action warned
that the damages award could bankrupt them and break the industry.