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Our Engle card series continues, spotlighting some of the best attorneys across more than a decade of Florida’s “Engle progeny” tobacco litigation. That litigation includes thousands of cases spun from a class action against the nation's tobacco companies, which was ultimately decertified by the state’s supreme court. This week we feature Frank Bayuk, a leading Engle vet who has cleared R.J. Reynolds in more than a half-dozen Engle trials CVN has covered. 

For more than a decade, the nation’s best tobacco attorneys have faced off in courtrooms across Florida as part of the state’s unique Engle progeny litigation. And in that time CVN has covered more than 200 Engle progeny trials, from the very first openings in 2008 to the latest trials this year.

In 2011 we first introduced our Engle Trading Cards to spotlight the best attorneys and provide a lighthearted way to track statistics in the ongoing litigation.  The cards have proven so popular over the years that we're bringing them back with a new, 4th edition collection. 

Gary Paige delivers closings that set up the biggest Engle tobacco verdict of the first quarter of 2020. See below for video featuring James Gustafson.

Court closures have paused Florida’s decade-plus-long, Engle-progeny tobacco litigation. However, before courts shut down, the first three months of 2020 had already produced a slate of headline-grabbing verdicts in the cases, spun from a massive class action suit against the nation’s tobacco companies. CVN looks at the top verdicts we’ve covered so far this year.

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Miami, FL— Attorneys Friday argued over who bore fault for the lung cancer that killed a 55-year-old Florida smoker, as trial opened against Philip Morris.  Lipp v. Philip Morris, 2017-CA-018509.

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Fort Lauderdale, FL— R.J. Reynolds was hit with a $12.5 million verdict Wednesday for the role Florida state court jurors found the company played in the death of a former police officer who smoked for decades. Snyder v. R.J. Reynolds, 2008-CV-019467.