[Intl-tobacco] Ontario: Tobacco suit a go: Judge (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Tobacco suit a go: Judge
by GRETCHEN DRUMMIE / Toronto Sun
Source: Toronto Sun, Saturday, 3/3/01

Widow Maureen McIntyre became Ontario's version of Erin Brockovich
yesterday.

 Justice Janet Wilson has allowed McIntyre to hire a lawyer on a
contingency fee basis -- illegal in this province -- to take on a big
tobacco company. It's a first in Ontario.

 A contingency arrangement is one where payment is only owed if a claim is
successful with an agreement that the lawyer will get a percentage of the
winnings. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in the Commonwealth where it
still is illegal, said her lawyer Douglas Lennox.

 And what that's done is make it "impossible for all people in Ontario to
get access to our courts ... Until now you just couldn't sue," Lennox
said. "The rule is if you don't have money, you can't get a lawyer."

 McIntyre is planning to sue Imperial Tobacco for $11 million alleging the
wrongful death of her husband Ronald, 63, who died of lung cancer in 1999.
Lennox noted the average award in Canada is only $50,000 and even if they
won the maximum it wouldn't even pay for the experts.

 Lennox said McIntyre is devastated and wants to "tell their story in
court.  This is the only way she can do it. This (British) law from 700
years ago has meant only the rich could tell their story."

 "She's the first person in the history of Ontario who's being allowed to
retain a lawyer even though she doesn't have any money to take on a big
company," Lennox said. "(Wilson) is inviting the government to change the
law.  It's a bad law, unfair."