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Tobacco Companies in Trouble?
Published May 31st, 2005Tagged: law | uk
Youch! Scary news for smokers and interesting news for lawyers (hum, not sure how the smoking lawyers will feel…) :)
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Verdict due in tobacco test case
Alfred McTear’s case could make legal history
A widow whose husband died of lung cancer is to learn on Tuesday whether she has won a landmark court battle against a cigarette giant.
Alfred McTear, who smoked 60 a day, died of lung cancer at the age of 48.
His widow Margaret, from Ayrshire, is suing Imperial Tobacco for £500,000 in the first case of its kind in Britain.…
“Members of Mrs McTear’s legal team have given their services for free.”
Awww, isn’t that nice of them.
Or, being more cynical, they’re doing it at the thought of the vast cashflow they might get if they win the case! Suddenly the lawyers who managed to get compensation for a smoker killing themselves could find themselves rather popular methinks…
Welcome to the United States of England.
It’s just like the case that originally brought abortion under the American Constitution:
Two lawyers approached a woman and offered to work for free. They made their careers out of her and years later (i.e. today) she feels used and abused and is campaigning to reverse the legal effects of the decision by claiming the decision was wrong and trying to say that abortion is really unconstitutional.
That’s life, go figure.