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Criminal proceedings are beginning to reopen Florida’s courtroom doors a little wider, with more counties across the state summoning jurors and holding in-person trials, more than five months after COVID-19 emptied the state’s jury boxes. 

Medical causation is a key battle line in many tobacco trials, but the complex medical evidence at issue can overwhelm jurors if not properly presented. However, Jack Williams’s straightforward, compelling closing on a smoker’s cancer diagnosis helped clear R.J. Reynolds in retrial of a case that had delivered a $23.6 billion verdict against the tobacco giant in its first time before a jury.

Asbestos cases often turn on a paper trail as the most reliable evidence at trial, where memories of potential exposure and their sources from decades earlier can be hazy. Todd Suddleson used such a paper trail as the key to a strong closing argument that helped clear CertainTeed in a $5M-plus asbestos trial in 2018. Francisco Herrera v. CertainTeed Corp., CV2014-09632.