The tobacco industry on 12 April 2006 attacked a landmark jury verdict ordering cigarette makers to cough up US$ 590.9 million for nicotine patches, telephone hot lines and other programs to help Louisiana smokers kick the habit, saying the trial that lead to the decision had "enough reversible error for 10 cases".

A state district court jury found in July 2003 that cigarette-makers had deceived the public with an addictive product and schemed to market cigarettes to children. The trial lasted more than a year. Following the trial's second phase, in the spring of 2004, the jury rejected calls from class-action plaintiffs for medical monitoring of present and former smokers but said the industry should provide free quit-smoking programs. Attorneys on both sides said it was the first time a jury had ordered such programs, rather than awarding monetary damages to smokers.
Before a five-judge panel of the state 4th Circuit Court of Appeal, Phillip Wittmann, an attorney speaking on behalf of all the defendants, said the trial should have ended – in the industry's favour – when the jury ruled that cigarette-makers had not manufactured a defective product as spelled out under Louisiana's products liability law. The defendants are RJ Reynolds, Lorillard, Philip Morris USA and Brown & Williamson.
Although the jury ruled that smokers were damaged by industry fraud, that's not a reason for liability under the products law, Wittmann said. He said most of the class of plaintiffs – an estimated 500,000 Louisiana smokers – depended upon the defective products claim to have legal standing. "It is clearly wrong to provide a remedy for the entire class when much of the class lost its claim," Wittmann said. (pi)