September 22, 1999

Dear Representative:

SAVE LIVES, NOT TOBACCO: The Coalition for Accountability is writing to urge you to oppose H.R. 1875, the Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1999, because it would virtually wipe out one of the most effective avenues of redress available to Americans injured by tobacco -- class action litigation. We also write in support of the Jackson-Lee amendment which would exempt tobacco class actions from the effects of this bill.

Our coalition represents more than 350 public health, consumer, medical, civic and business organizations which support national, state and local efforts to reduce the devastating toll tobacco takes on public health.

H.R. 1875 would, for the first time, give federal courts jurisdiction over almost all state class action claims, even those involving primarily intra-state disputes over state law. The bill accomplishes this extraordinary transfer of power from state to federal courts by giving federal courts jurisdiction over the vast majority of state class action cases. Under H.R. 1875, there will be few, if any, tobacco class action suits against the industry that will not be removable to federal court. Therefore, this bill will allow Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and the other tobacco industry giants to take state class action claims away from state courts and put them into federal courts over the objections of the plaintiffs.

Removing state class actions to federal court will have a particularly devastating effect in tobacco cases. Federal courts have historically been much more reluctant to certify tobacco class actions than state courts. For example, the Fifth Circuit in Castano v. American Tobacco refused to certify a federal tobacco class action stating that the supreme courts of the various states should have the first crack at addressing these state law issues. It is likely that future tobacco class actions would meet with the same objection. According to Dick Daynard, Chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University School of Law, when you combine the high percentage of tobacco cases that would be removable under this bill with the federal court reluctance to certify tobacco cases, the bill would "have the practical effect of ending most class actions against the tobacco industry."

For those few cases that do get certified in the federal court, this legislation will make it far more expensive and complicated to bring class actions and will lead to interminable delay for class actions against the tobacco industry. Class action cases can sometimes come to trial in state courts in a matter of a few months, but take years to be tried in federal court. The more class actions that are removed to federal courts, the greater will be the delay. Federal courts are already overburdened and not equipped to handle the flood of cases that will be shifted from state to federal courts. Further, federal courts are not expert in the state statutory and common law claims brought by most tobacco plaintiffs, complicating these cases even further. The bill would add delay and expense to tobacco class actions and make it much harder for injured consumers to take on the tobacco industry in court.

Class action suits are one of the only ways that injured consumers can bring legal claims against tobacco companies. That's why the tobacco industry tried to wipe out class actions in the June

20, 1997 deal it sought with state attorneys general. The proposal to end tobacco class action litigation in the June 20 deal was widely criticized by the public health community and was rejected by the Senate Commerce Committee in the McCain tobacco control bill. Save Lives urges you not to revive this issue by allowing tobacco companies to get the "back door" immunity from state class action suits currently contained in H.R. 1875.

We urge you not to give the tobacco industry this special protection from state class action suits. Please vote for the Jackson-Lee amendment and against the Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1999.

Co-Chairs of SAVE LIVES, NOT TOBACCO: The Coalition for Accountability

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