The last putative Tobacco class action that Weinstein certified didn’t require you to become part of the class. It was a non-opt in class, which meant that if you smoked, you were part of the class whether you wanted to be or not.

So congratulations, you’ve already been represented in one of Weinstein’s class action extravaganzas (at least for a little while), and you can send Weinstein a letter of thanks for permitting a bunch of trial lawyers to represent you without your knowledge or consent.

Unfortunately for the plaintiffs, the Second Circuit court of appeals threw Weinsteins’ class out unanimously (laughing, no doubt).

While not exactly the same, this Schwab monstrosity is based on a number of flimsy legal premises that will inevitably land the case in the same scrap heap. Weinstein’s glorious pontifications aside about remedy and justice aside, every other putative Tobacco class but one (and the number now exceeds 40 such cases) has been decertified at a State or Federal appellate level for severe legal flaws, and there is now a rather large legal precedent against allowing these sorts of cases to go to trial.

Considering the Second Circuit court of appeals history of overturning Weinstein, and Tobacco’s imminent interlocutory appeal, I doubt this one will ever make it to trial.

thanks