Source: Reuter

Texas up next as Florida settles tobacco suit

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuter) Texas plans to press ahead with its
$8.5 billion lawsuit against the nation's tobacco industry
following Florida's landmark settlement, officials said on
Monday.
The Texas lawsuit is next up for trial, and there have been
no substantive settlement talks of late as the two sides prepare
for jury selection beginning on Sept. 29, a spokesman for Texas
Attorney General Dan Morales said.
``There's no offer on the table, let's put it that way,''
spokesman Ward Tisdale said. ``We're not opposed to a
settlement, but our focus right now is on preparing for a
trial.''
Texas would be the first state to go to trial against the
industry unless a settlement is reached. Mississippi and Florida
both have settled their claims against big tobacco, heading off
earlier trials.
Florida officials on Monday signed an $11.3 billion
settlement, and Mississippi announced in July a $3.36 billion
settlement that averted what would have been the first state
trial against the industry.
Forty states had sued the nation's tobacco industry to
recover costs of treating Medicaid recipients with
smokingrelated illnesses. The states also are seeking damages
for the industry's alleged wrongful conduct in promoting a
product it allegedly knew to be dangerous.
In Texas, the state's legal team has leased out a former
medical building near the Texarkana federal courthouse in
northeast Texas to store ``truckloads'' of industry documents
obtained during discovery.
Tisdale said Texas attorneys had not reviewed the Florida
settlement, which in addition to monetary damages includes
prohibitions on advertising and marketing to children and
funding for pilot programs to reduce smoking by youths.
^REUTER@