On July 14, after a two-year trial, a Miami jury recommended that five U.S. tobacco companies pay a record $145 billion to Florida smokers. As many as 700,000 Florida smokers suffering from smoking-related illnesses are part of the class-action lawsuit.

The process has now begun for the indignant attorneys defending the nation's five largest tobacco companies to try to reverse the $144.87 billion judgment in punitive damages handed down by the six-member Dade County jury. Earlier, the same six-person jury had awarded $12.7 million in compensatory damages to two injured Florida smokers and the estate of a third smoker.

Tobacco lawyers have vowed to appeal the jury's decision, a process that could take years to resolve. Dade County Judge Robert Kaye also could substantially reduce the punitive damages against the five tobacco firms before the appeals process gets into full motion.

Another factor is that Florida law prohibits any court from forcing any corporation into bankruptcy through large punitive damages. At issue is the true amount the five companies could afford to pay in punitive damages and still remain solvent and profitable.

"No one should be shocked that a citizen jury that heard all the evidence against the tobacco industry would be so outraged that it would award $145 billion in punitive damages," said AAJ President Richard H. Middleton, Jr. "For decades it lied to the American people and their government, covered up its awareness about the addictiveness of prodcuts it knew were lethal, and knowingly marketed to children."

Middleton added that "[w]hat the Florida jurors said was that the tobacco industry's behavior has been unacceptable putting trillions of dollars in corporate profits ahead of millions of American lives.... This jury like thousands of others in communities across America every day has served our country and justice well."

In what appeared to be an apportioning of the punitive damages based on each company's current market share, the jury found damages of $73.96 billion against the largest corporation, Philip Morris. In addition, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings was slapped with $36.28 billion; rounding out the list were Brown & Williamson (British American Tobacco) at $17.59 billion, Lorillard Tobacco (Loew's Corp.) at $16.25 billion, and Liggett Group (Vector Group) at $790 million.