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Late-night comedians had a field day in the summer of 2002 when a lawsuit accusing McDonald's of making two teenage customers in New York fat and unhealthy was filed. … Food and restaurant companies, fearing they would be hammered with enormous judgments, as the tobacco industry was, immediately began fighting back, waging an aggressive campaign to make it impossible for anyone to sue them successfully for causing obesity or obesity-related health problems. Almost three years later, they have had astounding success. Twenty states have enacted versions of a ''commonsense consumption'' law. They vary slightly in substance, but all prevent lawsuits seeking personal injury damages related to obesity from ever being tried in their courts. Another 11 states have similar legislation pending. … Richard A. Daynard, a professor at Northeastern University School of Law and a founder of the ant itobacco movement, says that while the new state laws kill the possibility of personal injury obesity cases in those 20 states, they do not preclude another, perhaps more easily provable, type of litigation that lawyers have their sights on. ''Rather than seeking personal injury damages for the consequences of obesity, there will be lawsuits based on state consumer protection laws,'' said Professor Daynard, who heads the Obesity and Law Project at the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern. ''There's a lot of deception in the marketplace and a lot of it is relevant to the obesity epidemic. But here we don't have to prove anyone got fat.''
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