Doffermyre Shields' Bob Shields began his opening statement to the jury, in the retrial of Warrick v. R.J. Reynolds, "It was just before Christmas in 1953 when the heads of the major tobacco companies got together for a secret meeting at the Plaza Hotel in New York City to decide what to do about the mounting scientific evidence that cigarette smoking caused cancer.

According to Abrahamson & Uiterwyk's Hendrik Uiterwyk, in Willis v. R.J. Reynolds, plaintiff Jimmy Willis suffered from laryngeal cancer, bladder cancer, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) caused by Willis' addiction to smoking. Mr. Willis stopped smoking in 1993 after he contracted laryngeal cancer, and as a result of the surgery, could only speak or breathe through a hole is his throat.

In Collum v. Knife River, a Sacramento jury determined that employer Concrete Inc. discriminated against disabled employee Stewart Collum by failing to provide a reasonable accommodation, and by failing to engage in an interactive process to determine if a reasonable accommodation were possible. The jury awarded $15K in damages.

A Las Vegas jury awarded $1M in damages in the medical malpractice trial Striepling v. Valley Health System, webcast by CVN. Shirley Striepling died in January, 2007, at age 71, approximately a week after undergoing abdominal surgery.

Air Products' long-running effort to acquire Airgas goes to trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery Monday October 4, before Chancellor William B. Chandler III.