[Wildbill]

Hmm, sounds fishy to me. First off isn't there an insurance piece to this that would cover some of their eventual payoff? Second like you say its crazy to demand judgement like this when there are so few companies who could pay it. They would run to bankruptcy court down the hall from the court they lost in.

While activist groups and of course the frickin lawyers love to make these kinds of cases, you are right the actual people who deserve the money may see very little of it. Since they have mostly to pay off the attorneys a settlement gets made.

Lastly, don't be so sure they can't borrow at least some of the money. What they will do is just pass on the charge to smokers. They could borrow it or put out a debt issue that is securitized by a $X per pack surcharge to be paid out over a number of years. If only the lawyers didn't get so much of the money I would say its a great idea, after all its a tax on cigs in a time when lawmakers are abdicating their role as tax collector and trying to raise taxes as little as possible. Over time most of the money wouldn't even be paid by consumers here, but in foreign countries where smoking is growing or maintaining its revenues in the face of falling US demand. Not to mention wouldn't it be hilarious if we got the smoking health costs paid to our states and the bill was footed by the French and German smokers who seem to have never seen an enclosed public place they didn't think went better with wafting smoke, haha. That would be such a bitter irony...