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Debate and Issues Index

draft settlement

What's the Rush

Keep in mind that Friday's deadline (November 20, 1998) is an artificial deadline, created by the tobacco industry to produce a rush to judgment. If any of you have AGs who are wavering as to whether to sign the agreement, you might wish to point out that if they do not sign on Friday, but then decide a few weeks later to sign, the tobacco industry won't reject that state's participation in the settlement. The companies are certainly not going to insist that that state's case must go to trial instead.

The converse, however, is that if an AG rushes to judgment, signs on Friday, but then realizes in a few days or weeks that he or she has made a serious blunder, the tobacco companies most certainly are not going say it's OK for that AG to say, in effect, "Never Mind" and erase his or her signature.