$18M Verdict in Tobacco Fraud Trial 2022

TCNF partnered with the Alvarez Law Firm out of Miami in Higgs v. RJ Reynolds, representing an Oregon man who started smoking as a teenager in the 1960s and suffers chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (“COPD”), on oxygen for the rest of his life.  In a three week trial to a Multnomah County jury, we proved the company’s decades of fraudulent behavior, its efforts to induce young people to begin smoking, to conceal the harmful impact of cigarette smoke and to take advantage of the addictive quality of nicotine to keep those young people smoking for life.   The jury unanimously awarded Mr. Higgs $18.1 million for past and future medical expenses and pain and suffering.  Jim Coon handled the case for the firm.