MichaelSchmichael

Altria Has Been Great, Time to Exit

"The decision is a horrible one in that it now opens all businesses to suits that would have ordinarily been funneled to Federal Court to State Court, where we all know nothing good can happen."

This makes little sense. The Altria decision was a narrow decision addressing whether a federal law specific to the tobacco industry preempted state deceptive act statutes. First, the decision has no impact on non-tobacco businesses. Second, it does little to change the overall legal environment for tobacco companies as they are already in litigation in all 50 states, facing common law claims that will almost always be in state as opposed to federal courts (assuming compliance with CAFA). Rather than the chicken little assessment offered here, I see it as more of a "heads we win, tails it takes us longer to win" decision, where tails came up.