N.B. moving ahead in lawsuit against big tobacco

Two lawyers from Saint John and Monctonwill help New Brunswick take on tobacco companies.

Chris Correia of Saint John and Phillippe Eddie of Moncton join a consortium of lawyers who will try to make the legalcase thatbig tobaccoshould pay the province for the medical cost of treating smokers.

Attorney Generaland Justice Minister T.J. Burke saidexperts in the departments of health and justice have been doing research to determine what those costs have been.

"Through this information-gathering process, we'll be able to better quantify exactly how much it has cost the province of New Brunswick with respect to attributable tobacco-related wrongs on the part of tobacco-related manufacturers," he said.

Burke said his office offered the legal jobs to anybody who was interested in taking on a very costly, lengthy and technical lawsuit.

Those who applied were then graded.

"An evaluation team was put together by representatives from the Department of Justice and the Department of Health who evaluated their ability, their resources and also, the proposal that they put forward, which largely had a big part in determining who was going to be the lead for New Brunswick."

Burke said experience was important, but the other key factor was how the lawyers wouldbill the province.

The consortium of lawyers are working on a contingency fee. They will receive a percentage of whatever the province recovers through legal action, to a maximum of 25 per cent.

The province proclaimed its first anti-tobacco lawsuit legislation earlier this year, and will be the second province to haul tobacco companies to court. British Columbia was the first province to pass a law enabling itself to sue cigarette makers.

Burke says it could take years forNew Brunswick'slawsuit to make it to the courts, if it doesn't settle.