That is an incredibly disturbing story. PS I wouldn't mind some of that cash to actually purchase the expensive stop-smoking items on the market to try to stop smoking. Crazy of me, eh?

BTW I worked at RJR during the big settlement and what they called "New World" - the period of changing advertising and marketing, etc. I'll hold myself to 'no comment' on RJR and their lawyers, etc before I get myself in trouble... many of them are friends' fathers, too...

It is a strange deal with the devil-as-benevolent-benefactor here in Winston-Salem, or it used to be for many good folk's parents and grandparents. Again, no comment by me on the state of things for my generation and after the lawsuits.

But it's an interesting ongoing history. Read about the big buyout in the 80's if you want another scary tale to stun you!

I got only about a quarter way through and then had to back out. The article was turning my stomach. Sheer utter immorality, especially when you consider that they got that $$$ because of the all the people who've died over the years from tobacco smoke related diseases. The grasping for dollars by the winners of the suit actually made the tobacco company look good.

!!!SICK!!!

Agreed.

Can you believe the law firms actually suggested that they should be paid "in perpetuity."

I have my own ideas about what they'll be doing "in perpetuity."

My "favorite" part was discovering that the law firms that did eventually "win" an amended settlement still ended up losing--because the payments were capped anyway.

All they succeeded in doing was revealing their true nature--for the whole world to see.

How unfortunate!

If you want true horror though--you should see some of the discussion boards of actual "clients" of some of these firms discussing the way they've been treated--

--maybe next time--

MichaelAT

Thanks for cheering us up.

This should cheer you up!

MichaelAT

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.lectlaw.com/files/fun13.htm

Harryshoe --- LOL....

Crock o horse hockey. What you read is a bunch of one-sided propaganda. I don't suppose anyone mentioned that the States signed agreements to pay these fees, did they? Or that the Cities, States and Counties didn't come up with one red cent to finance the years of litigation all over the country against the biggest comglomerates and law firms in America? Yes, the recoveries were unanticipated, and the fees were adjusted after court approval. Two things bring out the worst in human nature: not enough money and too much money. I do hope you can all get your righteous indignation ginned up against tobacco companies that added chemicals and engineered their cigarettes to deliver more nicotine or that lied about "lite" cigarettes being better for you. What you're reading is a bunch of one-sided, business-financed propaganda designed to fuel so-called tort reform so that corporate multinationals will have no one to to challenge their hegemony, since they already control the legislative branch. It takes a little critical thinking to look to the motivation behind some of this stuff. It's like the pit of the Roman coliseum over here.

"What you're reading is a bunch of one-sided, business-financed propaganda designed to..."

When I saw that I said to myself: I need to see about that--I need to know if I'm missing some aspect of things.

So, I went on a search and found some things I didn't know about The Atlantic Monthly.

Its creators were a group of writers that included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., and James Russell Lowell (who would become its first editor).

The son of Holmes, Sr.--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. went on to become one of the all time "greats" on the Supreme Court and was later "quoted" by John F. Kennedy during his inaugural address:

"...it is now the moment when by common consent we pause to become conscious of our national life and to rejoice in it, to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for the country in return."

It was the magazine that originally published Martin Luther King's Letter From Birmingham Jail.

"Mark Twain once said that he liked writing humor for The Atlantic Monthly because the editors allowed him to be funny without asking him to paint himself in stripes and stand on his head."

"It is where John Muir published "The American Forest," which led to passage of the Yosemite National Park Bill, and where Jacob Riis published his first searching portrayals of the American slum."

"The Atlantic Monthly is where Felix Frankfurter, in 1927, spoke out in behalf of Sacco and Vanzetti."

The list goes on and on:

A History of The Atlantic Monthly

MichaelAT