Tobacco companies win back-to-back South Florida appeals - South Florida Sun-Sentinel sun-sentinel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sun-sentinel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Fla. Atty s Fiery 1984 Talk Gets $37M Tobacco Verdict Tossed
Law360 (June 30, 2021, 9:17 PM EDT) A Florida state appeals panel Wednesday reversed a $37 million judgment against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA Inc., ordering a new trial because a plaintiff attorney inflamed the jury by comparing the companies to the totalitarian state depicted in George Orwell s 1984.
The judges said Scott P. Schlesinger of Schlesinger Law Offices crossed the line when he called the tobacco companies a soulless enterprise of death and rotten to the core during his closing arguments. As with the other comments discussed above, the comments had no purpose but to inflame the jury, the decision by the Fourth District.
Many of South Florida's condos were built in the 1970s and ‘80s as an era of condo living exploded across the region. Although they are subject to periodic inspections, people living in high-rises now wonder how safe their own homes are.
Schlesinger Law Offices, P A in 2021 Super Lawyers® and Rising Stars prnewswire.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from prnewswire.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday disqualified a state judge from presiding over a suit alleging R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. misled smokers on the risks of smoking, because of a conversation he had with one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, marking the 13th case he's been removed from over the same incident.