Tobacco Litigation Freeze Lifted

Earlier today, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memorandum to general counsels at all federal agencies. This memorandum lifts the litigation hold imposed in United States v. Philip Morris USA Inc., et al., Civil No. 99-CV-02496 (GK) (D.D.C.).

Because of this issue’s significance to the federal records management community, we are revising the agenda for next Wednesday’s Bi-monthly Records and Information Discussion Group (BRIDG) meeting. At this meeting, senior NARA officials and Allison Stanton, DOJ’s Director of E-Discovery, FOIA, and Records in the Civil Division, will discuss the records management implications of this memorandum.

In addition, David Weinberg, the Director of the Federal Records Centers Program (FRCP), will outline the next steps in lifting the tobacco litigation (TIL) freeze on records stored and serviced for customer agencies in the FRCP. David Weinberg said, “This is very significant moment for NARA, our customers, and the American taxpayers. Over the next few weeks, we will be developing a plan to move forward with all appropriate disposition actions.”

On Monday, we will be sending out the new agenda and reconfirming the logistics for the BRIDG meeting.

5 thoughts on “Tobacco Litigation Freeze Lifted

  1. Hi Arian,
    Do you have a copy of the actual Memorandum that you can share? I have searched the DOJ, but have not found the official document. Thanks!

  2. I would like to share this with my office also- please provide the memorandum if its available. Thank you.

  3. Thank you all for commenting and reading the blog. This memorandum from DOJ is protected by attorney-client privilege and is not a public document.

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