In this story:

• Jury selection begins in Florida
• Nicotine addiction is key
• Coughing and wheezing in courtroom
• Liggett still a defendant
• Related stories and sites

MIAMI (CNN) -- As jury selection began Monday in a $200 billion smokers' class-action suit against the nation's tobacco companies, the industry said there would be no settlement and it would let the case run its course.

An estimated 100,000 to 200,000 sick Floridians stand to benefit from any financial award in the suit, which charges Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and other cigarette makers with hiding the dangers of smoking and selling a hazardous product.

Daniel Donohue, a spokesman for Reynolds, told reporters at the Miami-Dade Courthouse that no talks were under way between the companies and Stanley and Susan Rosenblatt, the lawyers who filed the class-action suit.

Last year, after months of legal battle in the same court before the same judge and against the same husband-and-wife team, the industry struck a $350 million deal to end another pioneering class-action suit -- one brought by non-smoking flight attendants claiming injuries from secondhand smoke aboard U.S. passenger jets.

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"That was a different time," Donohue said. "That resolution came when there was a national settlement under discussion."

This suit, however, is the first major tobacco trial since a $516 billion tobacco control bill collapsed in Congress. It is also the latest challenge for the industry, which has settled four state lawsuits for nearly $37 billion and has allowed only individual smokers' cases to go to juries, with mixed results.

At the center of the lawsuit is the issue of addiction and the ability to kick the habit. Most of the plaintiffs blame their illnesses on the tobacco industry, saying it was impossible to quit.

The smokers charge that the tobacco industry made a defective product and conspired to deceive the public and government about smoking-related illnesses.

"Cigarettes are a product that when used as directed will inevitably cause death and disease to a large percentage of its users," the lawsuit claims.

However, the industry maintains that those who want to quit can do so. Robert Heim, lead attorney for the cigarette makers, said last week, "It's common knowledge that smoking is more risky than not smoking. People can quit if they want to."

Brief history of tobacco Text: Tobacco settlement Tobacco company internal documents

Initial filings in the case in 1994 demanded $200 billion or more in compensatory and punitive damages, but Stanley Rosenblatt would only say last week that damages could total billions of dollars if a jury of six finds against the defendants.

In last year's secondhand-smoke class action, the Rosenblatts sought $5 billion in damages and settled for $350 million.

The number of alleged victims covered by the suit is uncertain, but the Rosenblatts have registered 13,000 to 14,000 claimants and estimate the total number at 100,000 to 200,000. Tobacco lawyers claim the number of people is too large for any one case to cover.

Some of the claimants were in court Monday when jury selection began, some of them with portable oxygen tanks. Although they won't testify during the trial, their presence could be both distracting and unsettling.

Extra benches had to be carried into the courtroom to handle the hundreds of spectators and claimants, and questioning began amid a steady backdrop of coughing, wheezing and the sound of electronic voice boxes.

Jury selection, which is expected to take at least a month, is expected to follow the pattern set by the first prospective juror, a businessman who thought it "absolutely ridiculous" that smokers are asking for money from the tobacco companies.

The man himself smoked for 36 years and has a history of asthma and bronchitis. Lawyers for both sides asked that he be removed from consideration, although as Heim noted "probably for different reasons."

Indicating he expected it might be difficult to find a jury both sides could agree on, Circuit Judge Robert Kaye told the lawyers, "This is not one of those issues where people don't have an opinion."

Before jury selection began, Kaye ruled that the Liggett Group would remain a defendant, something the tobacco companies opposed.

Liggett, the smallest of the major cigarette makers, has broken with the rest of the industry and settled lawsuits with 40 states. It has also promised to tell the jury that smoking is addictive and causes deadly disease.

The trial could have a significant impact on the industry, according to some experts.

"If they do take it to verdict, it becomes a critical case," said Gregory Joseph, chairman of the American Bar Association's litigation section. "Unless tobacco is exonerated, they could be bearing the brunt of that verdict for decades to come."

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