Government lawyers and attorneys for a group of tobacco companies met Wednesday to discuss how to implement a sweeping injunction lodged against the industry in 2006 by a federal judge who found the companies conspired for decades to conceal the health risks of smoking. The brief status hearing marked the first time in more than two years that the attorneys for both sides appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. The gove ... Jump to full article >>

A federal judge in Maryland has denied Star Scientific Inc.’s request for a new trial after the company lost a patent infringement case against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Petersburg-based Star, a small firm that makes smokeless tobacco products, said yesterday that it will appeal a June jury verdict in Reynolds’ favor. The company, which had asked the federal district court to set aside the jury verdict, will now appeal to the U.S. Co ... Jump to full article >>

MASTIC, N.Y. – The Unkechaug Indian Nation will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that reservation smoke shops can’t sell unstamped cigarettes to non-tribal customers. On Aug. 25, Judge Carol Bagley Amon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York tossed out the Unkechaug Nation’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg last September. The lawsuit seeks to collect taxes from cigarette ... Jump to full article >>

INDEPENDENCE | Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday for a new trial on the $20 million awarded from a tobacco company to an Independence man whose wife died of heart disease. A Jackson County jury in 2005 awarded Lincoln Smith $20 million in punitive damages from Brown & Williamson for the 2000 death of his wife, Barbara. The company is now part of North Carolina-based Reynolds American Inc. The Missouri appeals court sent the case b ... Jump to full article >>