LAW PROFESSOR PROPOSES LEGISLATIVE END TO TOBACCO WARS

Abstract

Wednesday, March 5, 1997

WRITER: Kathy R. Pharr, (706) 542-5172

CONTACT: Prof. Richard Nagareda, (706) 542-5433

LAW PROFESSOR PROPOSES LEGISLATIVE END TO TOBACCO WARS

ATHENS, Ga. -- Assistant Professor Richard Nagareda will analyze ongoing tobacco lawsuits and argue for a legislative solution when he presents a lecture, "A Legal Scorecard for the Tobacco Wars" at the University of Georgia School of Law Thursday afternoon, March 6. The lecture, to be held at 3:30 in Classroom F, is open free to the public.

Nagareda will provide background information on the status of private lawsuits against the tobacco industry, state government suits seeking recovery of Medicaid expenditures on behalf of smokers, and the FDA's initiative to regulate cigarette advertising to minors. He will also discuss the prospects of some current proposals to end the tobacco wars, such as a deal to free the industry of past liability in exchange for FDA regulation of tar and nicotine levels in the future.

"I think that a legislative solution to the tobacco wars would be not only politically feasible, but desirable," Nagareda said. "Deliberation on these issues should be a matter of public policy."

Nagareda, who teaches advanced torts, administrative law, and evidence at UGA, has recently published articles on mass torts (loosely defined as wrongful conduct that affects large numbers of persons over a broad geographic area and that leads to latent disease) in the Michigan Law Review and the Georgetown Law Journal. A member of the UGA law faculty since 1994, Nagareda earned his law degree cum laude from the University of Chicago and a political science degree with distinction from Stanford University.

**If you are unable to attend Thursday's lecture, please keep Professor Nagareda on file as an expert commentator for future stories on tobacco litigation or other mass torts cases such as breast implants. He can be reached at: (706) 542-5433.

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