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Coke braces for suit akin to tobacco fight; Lawyers want vending banned from all schools
They earned their reputations battling Joe Camel. Next target: The Real Thing. Having won major settlements against big tobacco, some of the same attorneys now are honing lawsuits against the soft drink industry. Richard Daynard, a Massachusetts law professor who made his name working as a consultant on class actions against tobacco companies, is part of a broad effort by both private attorneys and nonprofit groups to sue Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and other soft drink companies for selling high-calorie drinks in schools. Attorneys expect to file their first suit as soon as next month. The plaintiffs will be parents of schoolchildren. Part of the strategy is to claim that soft drink companies use caffeine, a mildly addictive substance, to hook children on a product that is dangerous because of its empty calories. "It is less egregious, but it is a little like having a cigarette machine in a school," Daynard said about soda vending machines. Daynard, an associate dean at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, has a long anti-cigarette resume that includes being president of the Tobacco Control Resource Center and chairman of the Tobacco Products Liability Project. He is also chairman of the Obesity and Law Project at the Public Health Advocacy Institute.
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