Lawyers for smokers of light cigarettes have asked a federal judge on Tuesday to grant class-action status to a lawsuit against major tobacco companies, allowing tens of millions of people nationwide to seek $120 billion in damages.

Judge Jack B. Weinstein, of Federal District Court in Brooklyn, is now considering whether tobacco companies should be tried on the question of whether they deceived smokers for years about the safety of light cigarettes. He did not indicate whether he would grant class-action status to the closely watched case. But he did ask lawyers for the plaintiffs how they were determining the number of smokers potentially affected and possible damages.
In the lawsuit, filed in 2004, the smokers accused Philip Morris, RJ Reynolds Tobacco, Lorillard Tobacco and other defendants of deceiving them for more than 30 years by claiming low-tar cigarettes were less harmful than regular cigarettes.
Judge Weinstein is expected to decide within several weeks whether to grant class-action status. (pi)