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West Palm Beach, FL—A tobacco industry scheme to undermine medical evidence of smoking’s risks led to a Florida woman’s fatal cancer, an attorney for the woman’s family said Friday, as trial opened against R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris. Landi v. R.J. Reynolds, et al. 2008-CV-025814.

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Tallahassee, FL—Trial is set Wednesday for a group challenging Florida’s ban on smokable medical marijuana, one of the first attacks on the law enacting a state constitutional amendment legalizing medicinal cannabis. CVN will broadcast the trial live. People United for Medical Marijuana Inc. v. Florida Department of Health 2017-CA-001394.

Medical center guidelines often form the central legal battleground in cases against hospitals. The defense will use compliance with the guidelines as proof that treatment met appropriate standards, while the plaintiff must show the hospital violated its own protocol or those guidelines didn’t apply. In 2017, Gordon & Doner's Scott Fischer secured a nearly $1 million verdict in a patient fall trial with a closing that hammered the hospital's safety protocol. Harrison v. West Boca Medical Center.

The destruction of key evidence can kneecap a plaintiff’s case, regardless of any adverse inference instruction a judge may give. In 2017's Fournier v. Derazi trial, however, Mark Avera overcame the destruction of vital evidence to win a seven-figure verdict for a college student injured in a fall from a house deck. 

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Jacksonville, FL—Jurors Thursday linked R.J. Reynolds cigarettes to a Florida smoker’s lung disease, but they placed the majority of blame on the smoker, and their $375,000 verdict was a fraction of what she sought against the tobacco giant. Rozar v. R.J. Reynolds, 2014CA000586.