Fighting Back: How Families Can Hold Tobacco Companies Accountable

Families of people harmed or killed by tobacco use still have legal options today, decades after the industry’s largest public settlements. Individual and wrongful death lawsuits against tobacco manufacturers continue to succeed in courtrooms, including a $56 million verdict against Philip Morris USA upheld by Massachusetts’s highest court in April 2026. Filing a claim generally requires medical records connecting the illness to tobacco use, a documented tobacco use history, and prompt action given strict filing deadlines.

An experienced attorney can help you understand what evidence you need and whether your family’s timeline still allows you to file.

You’re Not Too Late, and You’re Not Alone

If someone you love developed a serious illness or died because of tobacco use, it’s natural to wonder whether there’s anything left to do about it. The tobacco industry’s public settlements are decades old. The idea that “Big Tobacco already paid for this” is common, and it’s incomplete.

Individual families have continued to bring and win lawsuits against tobacco manufacturers well into 2026. In April 2026, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court unanimously upheld a $56 million punitive damages award against Philip Morris USA in the wrongful death case of Barbara Fontaine, who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboro and Parliament cigarettes for more than 40 years. The court pointed to the company’s “reprehensible conduct over decades,” including marketing practices aimed at minors, as justification for the size of the award. That case is one of several individual verdicts against major tobacco companies in the past two years, evidence that this kind of litigation remains active and successful.

Why the Master Settlement Agreement Didn’t End Individual Claims

In November 1998, the four largest U.S. tobacco companies signed the Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) with 46 states, resolving the states’ lawsuits over the public healthcare costs of smoking-related illness. It remains one of the largest civil settlements in U.S. history.

What the MSA did not do is resolve claims brought by individuals and families for their own injuries, medical costs, and losses. Those claims have proceeded separately, and continue to proceed, through individual lawsuits and wrongful death actions filed in state courts around the country. The “Engle progeny” cases in Florida, which followed a 1999 class action that produced jury findings of industry wrongdoing later relied on in thousands of individual cases, are one well-known example, but they are far from the only one; Massachusetts, in particular, has produced a steady stream of individual jury verdicts against Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds in recent years.

What It Takes to Hold a Tobacco Company Accountable

A tobacco liability claim typically rests on a combination of medical and historical evidence. Building a strong case generally means gathering the following:

1. Medical records documenting the diagnosis and connecting it, through a treating physician or expert, to tobacco use rather than another cause.
2. A tobacco use history, including how long the person smoked or used tobacco products, what brands, and when they started, since early-age initiation is often central to arguments about industry marketing aimed at minors.
3. Evidence of exposure to industry marketing, such as advertisements, promotional samples, or product claims (like “light” or “low tar” branding) that were prominent during the person’s tobacco use.
4. A cause of death or diagnosis consistent with tobacco-related disease, since not every illness in a former smoker is legally connected to their tobacco use; a treating physician’s or expert’s opinion on causation is typically necessary.

None of this guarantees a successful claim. Every case depends on its specific facts, and an experienced tobacco litigation attorney can help assess whether the evidence in your family’s situation supports a viable claim.

What Compensation May Be Available

Families who succeed in a tobacco liability claim, whether the injured person is living or has passed away, may be able to recover several categories of damages, depending on the facts of the case and the applicable state law:

• Medical expenses, including costs of treatment, hospitalization, and ongoing care.
• Lost income and financial support, particularly in wrongful death cases where the family depended on the deceased’s earnings.
• Pain and suffering, both the injured person’s own suffering and, in wrongful death cases, the loss experienced by surviving family members.
• Funeral and burial expenses in wrongful death claims.
• Punitive damages awarded in some cases specifically to punish especially reprehensible conduct and deter similar behavior; the 2026 Fontaine verdict against Philip Morris is a recent example of a court upholding a substantial punitive damages award.

No attorney can guarantee a specific outcome or dollar amount in any individual case; the examples above describe categories of damages that have been available in past cases, not a promise of similar results.

Don’t Wait: Filing Deadlines Are Strict

Every state sets its own statute of limitations for product liability and wrongful death claims, and these deadlines are typically measured in a few years, not decades. In most states, product liability deadlines generally run somewhere between one and six years, with two to three years being common, and wrongful death deadlines are often similarly short.

Two rules matter most for tobacco cases specifically:

• The discovery rule: In many states, the clock doesn’t start running until the person discovered, or reasonably should have discovered, that their illness was connected to tobacco use, not necessarily from the date they were first diagnosed with any illness at all.
• The wrongful death clock: In wrongful death cases, the filing deadline generally begins running from the date of death, though if the deceased discovered the tobacco connection to their illness before passing away, that earlier discovery date may control instead.

Because these rules vary significantly by state and by the specific facts of a case, the only way to know for certain whether your family still has time to file is to speak with an attorney promptly. Waiting to “figure out the details later” can cost a family its right to bring a claim at all.

Individual Lawsuit or Class Action: What’s the Difference?

Unlike the mass tort litigation model used in many other product liability cases, most tobacco lawsuits today are filed as individual cases rather than large class actions, since each plaintiff’s damages, tobacco use history, and cause of death tend to be highly individualized. That’s part of why courts have repeatedly upheld and enforced substantial verdicts in Massachusetts and Florida for specific families rather than a single mass settlement covering all similarly situated plaintiffs. An attorney can help you understand what filing structure applies to your specific circumstances.

Why Choose Cohen, Placitella, Roth & Goslee

Cohen, Placitella, Roth & Goslee has decades of experience representing families in complex product liability and mass tort litigation, including cases involving corporate concealment of known health hazards. Our attorneys know how to build a case around medical evidence, industry documents, and marketing history alike, and how to pursue the full range of damages a family may be entitled to.

We do not guarantee any particular outcome in any case; every claim depends on its own facts, medical history, and applicable law. What we can offer is a free, confidential case evaluation to help your family understand your options before time runs out.

Talk to a Tobacco Litigation Attorney Today

If your family has been affected by a tobacco-related illness or death, don’t assume it’s too late, and don’t assume there’s nothing left to do. Cohen, Placitella, Roth & Goslee can help you understand your options and whether your timeline still allows you to file a claim. Case evaluations are free and confidential, and there is no fee unless we recover compensation for you.

Attorney Advertising. This information is provided for general educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or medical advice. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this article. Cohen, Placitella, Roth & Goslee, P.C. represents clients on a contingency fee basis in qualifying cases, meaning you pay no attorney’s fees unless we obtain a recovery on your behalf.