June 7, 2007

"Accusing tobacco companies of preying on black people, a Miami attorney is seeking $1 billion in damages on behalf of a Coral Springs, Fla., woman whose mother and grandmother both died of smoking-related health problems." Reporter Forrest Norman of the Daily Business Review, the south Florida legal paper, quotes me expressing skeptical opinions about the suit. In Florida's earlier Engle tobacco litigation, plaintiff's lawyer Stanley Rosenblatt came in for sharp criticism at the appeals level for the way he demagogued the racial angle; I covered the case here, here and here. This week's case was brought by solo practitioner J.B. Harris, who said of the tobacco-company defendants, "If I could, I'd try to have them charged with genocide." ("Suit Accuses Tobacco Firms of Targeting Black Consumers, Seeks $1 Billion in Damages", Jun. 6)(cross-posted from Overlawyered).