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Big Tobacco lawyers target food industry
BBC ^ | 15 October 2012 | staff reporter

Posted on 10/16/2012 1:15:25 AM PDT by Daffynition

The lawyers who took on the big US tobacco companies, and won, have now set their sights on the food industry. Newsnight's science editor, Susan Watts, asks one of them why he has chosen this particular fight.

Don Barrett likes his opponents powerful, and rich. He is the lawyer whose decade-long battle to force the tobacco companies to admit they knew cigarettes are addictive and pay the medical costs of victims was depicted in the film The Insider.

He and his colleagues eventually forced a settlement that cost the industry more than $200bn (£124bn). The lawsuits made Mr Barrett a very wealthy man. But he says it is not the potential for another big pay-out that is now making him target "big food".

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Barret didn't make enough money from tobacco?

Don Barret is suing the makers of over 20 products, which include:

Fruit juices Crisps Soft drinks Chocolate Tinned tomatoes Canned fruits Baby food Tea

1 posted on 10/16/2012 1:15:32 AM PDT by Daffynition
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To: Daffynition
He and his colleagues eventually forced a settlement that cost the industry more than $200bn (£124bn). The lawsuits made Mr Barrett a very wealthy man. But he says it is not the potential for another big pay-out that is now making him target "big food".

Whenever someone, especially a lawyer, says it's NOT about the money, you can be sure it's about the money!

2 posted on 10/16/2012 2:16:44 AM PDT by Roccus
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To: Roccus
What is the saddest thing on this earth?
A bus load of attorneys going over a cliff with one empty seat. . . . .
3 posted on 10/16/2012 2:21:40 AM PDT by DeaconRed (ZERO & JOE think our countries situation is funny. It is NOT Funny. . . .)
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To: Daffynition

Why doesn’t he “go” after Monsanto who designed the fake seeds that grow the “Frankenfood” instead? Or the Feds who force HFCS and Ethanol upon us in order to buy votes?


4 posted on 10/16/2012 2:23:27 AM PDT by acapesket
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To: Daffynition

Is he going to make the fat cats skinny?


5 posted on 10/16/2012 2:48:27 AM PDT by Right Wing Assault (Dick Obama is more inexperienced now than he was before he was elected.)
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To: Roccus

Don’t we already have a huge Dept of Agriculture and USFDA in place to monitor ingredients v labels ....what do these agencies do all day? [/rhetorical]


6 posted on 10/16/2012 3:16:40 AM PDT by Daffynition (Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. ~ HLM)
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To: Right Wing Assault

He’s doing a job that even illegal aliens won’t do.


7 posted on 10/16/2012 3:19:20 AM PDT by Daffynition (Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. ~ HLM)
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To: Daffynition

The communist left will cheer, lawyers will stuff their pockets and we will all pay higher food prices.


8 posted on 10/16/2012 3:45:08 AM PDT by ryan71
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To: Daffynition

Oh, kalifornia thinks it is just peaches and cream for illegals to become lawyers and practice law.


9 posted on 10/16/2012 3:50:10 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (Why do cops have more lenient ROEs when facing us than troops in combat facing suicidal islamists?)
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To: Daffynition

ONCE AGAIN, why do we have to get our news from British news agencies? Is this why there is a push for a US “firewall” on the internet?

Just saying something is smelling.


10 posted on 10/16/2012 4:16:26 AM PDT by hadaclueonce (you are paying 12% more for fuel because of Ethanol. Smile big Corn Lobby,)
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To: DeaconRed

Aw, It’s just 98% of lawyers that give all the rest a bad name.........


11 posted on 10/16/2012 4:25:40 AM PDT by Quickgun (Second Amendment. The only one you can put your hands on.)
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To: hadaclueonce

Often the UK stories I read are days ‘n days ahead of events we eventually read about here...in spite of the time difference. :)


12 posted on 10/16/2012 4:42:01 AM PDT by Daffynition (Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. ~ HLM)
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To: Repeat Offender

Hope we’re paying for their education to do so. ///sarc


13 posted on 10/16/2012 4:43:27 AM PDT by Daffynition (Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. ~ HLM)
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To: Daffynition

Maybe they can do to the price of food what they did to the price of cigarettes.


14 posted on 10/16/2012 5:04:06 AM PDT by Bob Buchholz
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To: Bob Buchholz

Heh......the price of gasoline/fuel is doing that all by its onesie. :(

[Let’s not leave out the cost of medical care.]


15 posted on 10/16/2012 5:15:58 AM PDT by Daffynition (Self-respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious. ~ HLM)
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To: Daffynition

Actually this is old news. John Banzhaf, the father of the anti-tobacco lawsuits started his lawsuits several years ago.


16 posted on 10/16/2012 5:53:28 AM PDT by Gabz (Democrats for Voldemort.)
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To: Daffynition
What he himself is fighting for, he says, is people's freedom to make a choice.""""

"Nobody's trying to tell the American people what they have to eat or what they cannot eat, (EXCEPT MICHELLE OBAMA)

"""To have free choice you have to have accurate information. That means Big Food, the food companies, have to start telling the truth about what's in their product. The law requires it." (THAT IS ALREADY A LAW, IT IS CALLED LABELING)

I guess I never knew what was in a candy bar that would make me FAT.

He has the gall to say "The LAW has been good to him""??? no kidding. Hey, why isn't someone calling him racist for have that REBEL FLAG.

17 posted on 10/16/2012 6:13:27 AM PDT by annieokie (O)
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To: hadaclueonce

Worth re-asking.


18 posted on 10/16/2012 6:17:02 AM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network (America doesn't need any new laws. America needs freedom!)
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