Word: tobacco
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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That's when Scruggs and Mississippi attorney general Michael Moore--a classmate from the University of Mississippi Law School--decided to go after tobacco. There had long been a major obstacle: cigarette companies defended themselves by arguing that smokers knew about the dangers and assumed the risk. Scruggs and Moore decided to try to get around these "personal responsibility" defenses by suing on behalf of states, not individuals, seeking reimbursement for the Medicaid money the states had paid out for smoking-related illnesses...
Scruggs took the lead and organized the tobacco litigation with military efficiency. He selected law firms to join the team, assessed each firm a share of the expenses, doled out work assignments and figured out in advance how any fees would be distributed. Scruggs functioned "like a CEO," says Paul Minor, a trial lawyer in Biloxi, Miss. "He's our general and chief strategist, the leader and manager of all these law firms and big egos...
...state tobacco litigation succeeded beyond anyone's expectations. A whistle-blower, former Brown & Williamson chemist Jeffrey Wigand, turned up with damning testimony and internal documents. In the end, Big Tobacco folded, accepting a settlement that included major restrictions on advertising--no billboards, for example--and $246 billion in damages, to be paid to the states over 25 years...
...lawsuits on behalf of individual smokers that have been filed across the country may ultimately prove even more costly. In Florida a jury last year found that tobacco companies had engaged in "extreme and outrageous conduct" by selling a product it knew to be dangerous. The jurors are now considering damages. The tobacco companies are worried that the total bill could be as high as $300 billion. They have said the case could bankrupt them--a result even Scruggs and Moore would hate to see. "An unregulated black market in tobacco," Moore says, "would not be in the public interest...
Guns are already being touted as "the next tobacco." The breakthrough lawsuit came last year, when a jury in Brooklyn, N.Y., held 15 gun manufacturers liable for negligently distributing handguns that were later used in crimes. At least 30 cities and counties have filed lawsuits against gun manufacturers, and the industry is running scared. Smith & Wesson, the oldest and largest handgun manufacturer in the U.S., agreed last month to adopt several kinds of safety measures--among them installing "smart-gun technology" on all its guns within three years in exchange for being dropped from numerous lawsuits. Colt has stopped making...