Expert Talks Too Much, Scuttles Case

An expert witness doctor in a Florida case provided statistics about how many people can be expected to die prematurely from smoking. The number is 430,000 a year, he said, driving the point home by comparing that to the number of people in “about three” World Trade Centers (apparently alluding to the number who worked there, not who were killed on 9-11). The testimony came a few days after the 13th anniversary of the 9-11 attack, and the defense objected to the reference and moved for a mistrial. The judge granted the motion, noting that we’re “dealing with a psychiatrist here, and there could be a subliminal plant dealing with what he mentioned …” The case, Morse v. R.J. Reynolds, is one of thousands of similar tobacco lawsuits filed in Florida in the the wake of a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision, says another post from Courtroom View Network  That decision, although it decertified a class action, made determinations that can make tobacco companies liable in individual cases where plaintiffs can prove addiction and a causal link between the habit and disease.