How much money might Big Tobacco still be on the hook for?
This is very hard to determine at this time. It depends on the actual class size, the percentage of the actual class members that want to file individual cases, and the ability of Florida attorneys to meet the demand for case filings. To be relatively conservative, assume that the class size if 200,000 and one third of these individuals actually file complaints within the year. That means we would see about 67,000 new cases. If the plaintiffs win only half of these (bearing in mind that most of the difficult issues have already been decided), this could mean 38,500 verdicts. Looking at the very low end of compensatory damages for one of the smoking-caused diseases, assume that these verdicts average $500,000. Assume that only half of these verdicts will trigger punitive damages and that punitive damages average nine times the compensatory damages. That would mean $19.2 billion in compensatory damages and an additional $86.6 billion in punitive damages for a total of around $106 billion
