Smokers who want to file a claim on a $45 million settlement payable to Marlboro Lights users in Arkansas can now apply through a website, www.marlborolightsclass.com.
A monthlong advertising campaign has also begun to notify potential claimants -- anyone, regardless of residency in the state, who bought Lights or Marlboro Ultra Lights in Arkansas over 32 years between November 1971 and April 18, 2003 -- about how to apply for payment based on how many cigarettes they purchased during that period.
Claimants can also call toll-free (877) 625-9432 for information.
Purchase receipts are not required. Consumers can receive 10 cents to 25 cents per pack bought over the years by submitting a sworn statement to the court listing the applicant's average daily cigarette purchase per year for personal use, along with the name, address and telephone number of a verifying witness.
Applicants must also submit the names and locations of three retailers where the Lights or Ultra Lights cigarettes were bought.
Mailed applications for compensation are due by Dec. 1 or must be postmarked by that date.
The compensation process will be vetted by a court-appointed accountant and an attorney who have been empowered to hold hearings on any applications they find questionable.
Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox will also hold a hearing at 1:30 p.m. Nov. 21 to decide whether to grant final approval to the arrangement. He will also take testimony then from anyone who objects to the settlement, the only one the tobacco company has agreed to in the country.
The $45 million settlement was reached last month through court-ordered mediation. The agreement ended a 13-year-old lawsuit against Lights manufacturer Philip Morris USA by smokers who claimed the company's advertising of the brands was deceptive.
The lawsuit had originally sought a full refund for each pack purchased during the 32-year span, beginning from the time the cigarettes were first introduced.
Consumers will be paid 10 cents per pack bought over 27 years from Nov. 1, 1971, to April 17, 1998, and the five years between April 19, 1993, and April 17, 1998. The rate increases to 25 cents per pack for cigarettes bought over a five-year period between April 18, 1998, and April 18, 2003, a time frame that reflects the five-year statute of limitations of the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the law on which the litigation was based.
The $45 million has to pay for everything, including attorneys fees and costs of the litigation, the expenses of administering the payout program, including the two claims-review masters, and an award to the two lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Wayne Miner and James Easley.
That plaintiffs' award and the amount of attorneys fees will be decided by the judge at a hearing yet to be scheduled. Fox will receive a recommendation on how much those payments should be from attorney James Tilley, who mediated the settlement.
Fifteen attorneys from seven law firms in four states -- Arkansas, Illinois, Mississippi and Texas -- worked on the case, court filings show. Three other Little Rock lawyers from two law firms, Thrash Law Firm and Carney, Williams, Bates, Pulliam & Bowman participated: Hank Bates, Marcus Bozeman and Randy Pulliam.
The advertising campaign began Aug. 31, with newspaper advertisements in Arkadelphia, Batesville, Blytheville, Camden, Forrest City, Harrison, Hope, Magnolia, Malvern, Mountain Home and West Memphis, according to a notice filed with the court Tuesday.
The campaign is targeted at Arkansas residents age 25 and over to reach all current and former cigarette smokers, particularly residents 55 and over who may be former smokers.
Court filings show the administrator of the advertising effort expects to reach about 90 percent of all Arkansas adults over 25 and 86 percent of those 55 and over, with an estimate that all of the target audience will be exposed to the campaign at least five times.
Advertising will include notices in Hispanic newspapers, news releases, radio public service announcements, sponsored web search listings on Bing, Google and Yahoo, and the case's web site.
The plan includes running a notice in the Sunday edition of 12 Arkansas newspapers and the Memphis paper, with the notice running in a weekday edition of the 12 Arkansas newspapers that do not publish on Sunday. The 25 papers together have a circulation of 458,233, according to court filings. The notice will also be published in the state's four Hispanic weekly papers, which have 49,355 subscribers.
Radio ads, at least 80 per market, will run on radio stations in 10 markets that cover Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas in an effort to reach Arkansas' outer counties, with a public-service announcement for broadcast that will be submitted to about 870 stations that cover those four states as well as Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Website banner advertising will include Facebook and target Arkansas plus the cities of Memphis, Shreveport, Monroe, and Springfield, Mo.
The advertising administrators estimate that those ads, which will link to the settlement website, will be seen 13.7 million times over the monthlong campaign. Advertising will include an insert in People magazine, which has a circulation of 3.4 million with an estimated readership of 42.1 million.
Eligible claimants who do not wish to participate in the settlement can opt out of the agreement by doing so in writing by Nov. 1. Eligible consumers who choose not to participate in the settlement can file their own suit, according to the website.
If enough decline to participate, Phillip Morris has the option to discontinue the arrangement, court filings show. How many people must withdraw from the settlement for the company to exercise its option to cancel is the subject of a secondary agreement by the parties and won't be disclosed until after the Nov. 1 deadline has passed.
The litigation did not involve health claims or injuries that could be attributed to smoking.
Plaintiffs had accused the cigarette company of running a misleading advertising campaign that deliberately duped consumers into believing the Lights brand was safer and subjected them to lower levels of tar and nicotine than regular cigarettes.
Company officials disputed claims of deliberate deception and wrongdoing, arguing that Lights did what they were advertised to do -- deliver less tar and nicotine -- if they were smoked correctly. The Lights filters were specially ventilated to reduce tar and nicotine, but smokers could get more by inhaling more deeply or more often, the company stated.
Smokers who used the cigarettes as they were designed got the promised benefit of reduced tar and nicotine, the company said.
The cigarettes were rebranded as Marlboro Silver and Marlboro Gold in 2010 after federal regulators barred makers from advertising them as light or mild.
Metro on 09/09/2016