Canadians follow local trial closely

A lawsuit against a major tobacco company that is being tried in Escambia County is being closely followed by a team of Canadian lawyers interested in fighting “Big Tobacco” in their own country.

This case (Martin v. R.J Reynolds) is the first Engle case to be tried in Escambia County since the Florida Supreme Court in 2006 threw out a record $145 billion class-action verdict, known as the Engle case. The Supreme Court said each case would have to be decided individually and about 8,000 such cases have been filed around the state.

Two Canadian attorneys, Paul Harte and Brad Robitaille, are in Pensacola to follow the case which will take about four weeks to try. Harte and Robitaille are putting together a national coalition of Canadian law firms that hopes to sue the major tobacco companies in courts of each of the provinces.

The team will be similar to the national team led by the Levin, Papantonio law firm that reached a master settlement agreement with “Big Tobacco” in 46 of the 50 U.S. states in November 1998. That agreement arose out of many separate legal actions brought by various individual States against the tobacco industry for Medicaid costs associated with smoking-related diseases.

Canada has a national healthcare system. The estimated annual cost for treating tobacco-related illnesses is $4.8 billion. Over 37,000 people die each year due to those illnesses. So the impact of the budgets on the individual provinces could be significant if the legal team put together by Robitaille and Harte prevails in the courts.

British Columbia and New Brunswick have passed legislation to allow the provinces to sue tobacco companies to recover billions of dollars in smoking-related health costs and for alleged misrepresentation of their products. Ontario, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba have introduced similar legislation. Prince Edward Island may do so soon.

“We expect to see the legislation passed in nine of the 10 provinces,” says Brad Robitaille, managing partner of Greg Monforton and Partners in Windsor, Ontario. “When the laws are in place, we plan to roll out a national litigation team that will take on the tobacco companies.”

Paul Harte of Harte Law in Toronto, Canada explains why it has taken so long for Canada to challenge the major tobacco companies.

“There has not been a lot of public pressure on government until recently. As more information gets out and the public has become more aware of how “Big Tobacco” has engineered its products to be addictive, the pressure has increased to do something about it,” says Harte.

“Simply more people know now. We have an obligation to obtain justice for the tens of thousands who have suffered, and we believe the government is the best mode to attain justice.”

Robitaille knows that it won’t be easy to fight the tobacco companies.

“Big Tobacco has the most powerful litigation team known to man. They prey on divisiveness between attorneys, between victims, between the provinces. Their strategy is to delay and procrastinate.”

Robitaille and Harte hope to even the odds with their national team and taking a “Big Tent” approach.

“We have taken an inclusive approach which should put us in a good position to take on the cases nationwide,” says Robitaille.