State Lawyers Smokin’ To Get Tobacco Data

The state attorney general’s office is struggling to produce 30 million pages of documents for tobacco companies, a multimillion-dollar effort requiring the work of 300 people.

The companies want the records, which deal mostly with Medicaid cases, to contest Washington state’s lawsuit seeking reimbursement for public health costs for smoking-related illnesses and deaths. The state’s lawsuit is set for trial next September.

“It’s the scorched-earth litigation strategy they have used all over the country,” said Attorney General Christine Gregoire, who helped craft the 25-year, $368 billion agreement between the tobacco companies and states that sued them. The deal is on hold while Congress and President Clinton consider making changes.

Washington state has 300 public and private employees working to produce records for the tobacco industry by a court-imposed Nov. 13 deadline. Gregoire’s office estimates the effort may cost $5 million.

Gregoire said she might ask a judge to force the companies to pay for the search. If that fails, she will seek money from the Legislature, said her director of administrative services, Fred Olson.

A Seattle attorney for Philip Morris said the tobacco companies offered to review documents under strict court guidance so the state wouldn’t have to remove names and confidential information, which is taking the most time and money.

“They started this litigation,” attorney Timothy Butler said. “They knew discovery (of legal documents) is a two-way street. They knew they were going to have to produce all these documents and it would be costly. Besides, we’ve had to produce 40 to 50 times the number of documents the state has.”