Smokers forfeit legal rights

The Times reports that legal shakedown might get more difficult in England:

SMOKERS are legally responsible for their own ill-health because of their negligence in failing to give up, the High Court ruled yesterday.

In a groundbreaking decision, a judge said that those who had smoked since 1971 were guilty of risking their own health because of the clear evidence that had emerged since then about the dangers posed by tobacco.

Lawyers gave warning last night that the decision could also hit compensation claims for ill-health made by other groups, such as heavy drinkers and obese people.

No word yet on whether Justices Breyer and Ginsberg want to cite this foreign precedent.