Cigarette Firms to Pay Fla. $1.7 Billion More

U.S. cigarette makers agreed to pay Florida an additional $1.7 billion and accept stricter advertising and lobbying guidelines as part of a renegotiated settlement of the state’s landmark anti-tobacco lawsuit. Reaping the benefits of more recent tobacco settlements in Minnesota and Texas, Florida will receive the extra cash during the next five years, bringing to $13 billion the amount it expects to collect from the 1997 lawsuit settlement. Florida was one of the first of about 40 states to file a so-called Medicaid lawsuit against big tobacco, seeking reimbursement from the industry for the public health costs of treating sick smokers. It settled its case for $11.3 billion on the eve of trial in August 1997. “When we entered this fight, we had one aim: to make tobacco pay,” Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles told a news conference. Chiles also said the new settlement agreement contains arbitration procedures to resolve a rancorous dispute over up to $3 billion in fees claimed by private attorneys who worked for the state during the suit. Under the deal, which will be used as a model to determine payment of lawyers’ fees in other states’ cigarette cases, Florida’s attorney fees will be determined by a three-member panel, which will return a binding decision by mid-December. Florida also agreed to free $100 million quickly as a down payment on the fees owed to the lawyers. The agreement also expands restrictions on tobacco advertising in Florida.