Attorney who Took on Big Tobacco Still Awaits Outcome

Source from:  Portland Business Journal - by Andy Giegerich Business Journal staff writer 03/18/2008

At the core, the Exxon Valdez case and the two tobacco class-action cases that Chuck Tauman works on are very different. The Exxon Valdez case is a maritime matter, which raises questions regarding what's allowed at sea. Tauman's tobacco class-action cases tackle more typical constitutional issues. However, things dovetail a bit in terms of what Bob Stoll, who oversees the Exxon case, and Tauman, a Portland solo practitioner, do. There are similarities regarding the intent of the class-action suits, the mission and the inordinate amount of time that Tauman and Stoll must spend before they can even sniff their contingency fees. Tauman earned some renown for his work on two separate Oregon tobacco cases. The Williams v. Philip Morris case delivered an $80 million verdict for the family of Jesse Williams, who'd believed tobacco company arguments that smoking wasn't dangerous. At one point Williams, who began smoking in the early 1950s and died in 1997, smoked three packs of cigarettes a day. Enditem