by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Two federal judges met Tuesday with attorneys from both sides to find out how nearly 4,000 tobacco cases could proceed.
U.S. District Judges Timothy Corrigan and Marcia Morales Howard listened to ideas from plaintiff and defense attorneys on how to move the cases forward.
If the cases went through normal court procedure, it would take about 760 years for all of the cases to get to court, according to Jacksonville attorney Woody Wilner, representing about 3,800 plaintiffs throughout Florida.
The two sides originally discussed choosing 10 test, or benchmark, cases, but Wilner objected because of the age of his clients.
“Sometimes people die and they don’t leave heirs, so it is difficult to track them,” said Wilner. “So they can’t be contacted.”
He requested that those cases be removed from the test cases if such a method were used.
Attorney Kenneth Reilly, representing Philip Morris USA, urged the judges to use the test-case approach.
“If you start with these first cases, you could become familiar with these cases and how long they take to assist with case management,” said Reilly.
Corrigan let the defense know early that “just say no” won’t make the process any easier.
“This policy of ‘we’re not going to give it to them because they want it’ is not the best way to serve justice” said Corrigan. “If this continues, we are just going to be stuck in the mud.”
The cases stem from a Florida Supreme Court decision in 2006 that broke up the Engle class action lawsuit and allowed plaintiffs to file individually up to a year later.
Wilner has asked for 499 of his cases be dropped so they can be heard on the state level in the new tobacco court. The defense has accused Wilner of “forum shopping” to get a favorable opinion.
“At this point, I’m just trying to get the cases heard,” said Wilner. “After I heard that the state court was opening a tobacco court, I moved to drop so I could take the cases over to state court.”
Chief Circuit Judge Donald Moran has appointed Judge Charles Arnold to lead the new tobacco court and he will begin full-time in January. Arnold is currently presiding over both his normal caseload in the criminal division as well as organizing the tobacco court.
“We’ve already scheduled 24 tobacco cases for 2011, which is twice as many as 2010,” Arnold said during a recent interview. “I don’t know what we are going to do if we get an additional 400-500 cases.”
Corrigan and Howard did not set a deadline for presenting an order addressing the issues.
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