Smokers who sought share of $45M settlement fund can expect checks soon, Little Rock attorney says

System set to start mailing in 45 days, claimants told

More than 20,000 Marlboro Lights smokers who applied for a share of a $45 million settlement fund can start looking for their checks soon, the Little Rock lawyer who spearheaded a 14-year-old lawsuit against the cigarettes' manufacturer said Wednesday.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox has signed off on the final accounting of the applications, which provides for $18,016,002 to be paid tax-free to 20,521 claimants nationwide.

Attorney Tom Thrash, who filed the consumer-protection lawsuit in April 2003, said the system is in place to start mailing out checks within the next 45 days.

The bulk of the money, $17,267,402, will be divided among 13,035 applicants who completed the required questionnaire. The remaining 7,486 claimants, who submitted flawed applications, will receive $100 each of $748,600.

Applicants were eligible to receive 10 cents or 25 cents per pack purchased, depending on when they bought the cigarettes.

The fund was set up to end a class-action lawsuit accusing Philip Morris USA and parent company Altria Group of violating the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

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Plaintiffs accused the cigarette-maker of deliberately misleading Arkansas consumers about the safety of Lights and companion brand Marlboro Ultra-Lights.

Philip Morris has denied any wrongdoing and has prevailed in about a dozen similar lawsuits nationwide.

Arkansas is the only state where the company has paid to settle litigation.

The only suit to succeed at trial, in Massachusetts, provided about $77 to each claimant, and that case is on appeal.

The average payout for the Arkansas fund is $878; applicants who correctly completed the claim form will get an average of $1,325.

Thrash said the checks must be cashed within two months. An effort will be made to resend any returned mail, he said, but he doesn't expect that many checks will be undeliverable because applicants were asked for their current addresses.

Preliminary figures had been released over the past few months. Thrash said the 26,001 claims received had to be vetted by attorney Allison Allred and accountant Angie Hopkins as part of a review required before Fox could order the release of the money.

The judge disallowed 5,479 applications. Of that number, 4,926 came from one of five addresses in either Ohio or the city of Atlanta. One claim was withdrawn while 158 were deemed ineligible because they missed the Dec. 1 application deadline. Another 395 applications were duplicates.

Fox has approved releasing $11.1 million to pay the expenses and some of the fees for the lawyers. But there still are pending legal fee requests and administrative costs, Thrash said.

The judge also has yet to decide whether some portion of the money will go to anti-cancer charities as the lawyers have asked, he said.

People who bought the Lights brands in Arkansas over a 38-year period were entitled to a share of the $45 million regardless of whether they ever lived in the state.

The period covered the time the cigarette brands were introduced in November 1971 until regulators barred cigarettes from being advertised as light or mild in June 2010. The Marlboro brands are now sold as Silver and Gold.

Claimants did not need to provide receipts to stake a claim, just submit a sworn statement estimating their annual purchasing habits, naming three locations where they had bought cigarettes and identifying someone who could vouch for them.

Of the 7,486 applications deemed to be flawed but eligible for $100 each, 99 had not been properly filled out; 1,792 claimed to have purchased at least six packs per day; and 5,595 were submitted by claimants who reported purchasing at least some cigarettes illegally when they were too young to buy tobacco.

Metro on 03/16/2017

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