State of Minnesota & Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
v.
Phillip Morris Incorporated, et al.
Mike and Roberta were co-lead counsel for the State of Minnesota and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota in a groundbreaking lawsuit against the tobacco industry. After four years of litigation-including discovery of more than 30 million pages of internal documents, litigation of crime-fraud privilege issues, more than a dozen interlocutory appeals (including two to the United States Supreme Court) and four months of trial-the case settled on May 8, 1998, on the eve of jury deliberations for $7 billion and unprecedented injunctive relief against the tobacco industry. Jan negotiated and drafted the settlement. The settlement included an end to marketing to children and a repository of 35 million pages of tobacco industry documents available for public scrutiny. Mike and Roberta received Trial Lawyer of the Year Award from Trial Lawyers for Public Justice for work on the litigation.
Settlement
Minnesota’s 1998 settlement with major cigarette manufacturers remains a milestone in American legal history. At settlement, it was the world’s fourth largest legal settlement. It not only generates hundreds of millions of dollars annually — forever — for Minnesota’s treasury, but also imposes permanent legal restrictions on the activities of the cigarette manufacturers. Among other things, the settlement:
- Prohibits marketing to youth.
- Prohibits misrepresentations about the health consequences of tobacco use.
- Bans merchandise bearing cigarette brand names or logos.
- Ends cigarette billboards and transit advertising.
- Bans any payment for the placement of cigarettes in movies.
- Prohibits anti-competitive practices.
- Requires disclosure of the companies’ lobbying expenditures.
- Requires cigarette manufacturers to maintain public document depositories to house 30 million pages of once-secret documents disclosed in the case.
- Sets aside $200 million to help smokers who want to quit, supports tobacco-related research and promotes tobacco control.
