On Wednesday, the nation's major tobacco companies lost the first class-action lawsuit to reach a verdict when a Florida jury decided that the companies had conspired to hide the dangers of smoking. The decision, which allows for both compensatory and punitive damages, could give hundreds of thousands of smokers or their families in Florida the opportunity to make billions of dollars of claims on the tobacco companies. This decision marked the end of the year-long first phase of the trial. In the next phase, jurors will review the claims of nine representative class members and decide on damages. To qualify for an award, members must demonstrate that they suffer from health problems caused by smoking and that they were deceived by the tobacco industry. This would then be followed by tens of thousands of other trials to determine awards to other members of the class-action suit. Legal analysts are split on the possible outcomes of the trial. Some argue that a class action on the part of a disparate collection of smokers will not be upheld by the Appeals Courts. Others believe that it will be upheld and that, like the US asbestos manufacturers, the major tobacco companies will be forced into making global settlements for injury claims. The sites listed provide information about this historical verdict.