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San Antonio litigator MIkal Watts, who's made a name for himself nationwide in mass tort cases, found a vaping device in his son's truck, and he said it turned his focus to suing JUUL Labs Inc.

"He said, 'Dad, everyone is doing it. It's safer than smoking,'" Watts recalled about confronting his son about using JUUL. He said the incident prompted him to research how prevalent vaping had become in middle and high schools, the addictiveness of electronic cigarettes and the health problems they could cause.

Now Watts, partner in Watts Guerra in San Antonio, has become the first Texas attorney to sue e-cigarette maker JUUL Labs Inc. in a Texas court. But Watts, who sued JUUL on Thursday, can't take credit for filing the first such suit in the Lone Star State. That suit came from Wisconsin attorney Erin Dickinson, whose vaping lawsuit landed more than a month ago.

Watts said he's planning to file many more lawsuits, as he's already signed up 1,800 vaping clients. He added that he's friends with other prominent mass tort attorneys in Texas who are also powering up to go after JUUL in court.

In addition to JUUL, the suit Watts filed names Pax Labs Inc., JUUL's parent company until 2017, as a defendant. Plaintiff Joshua Isakoff alleges that the defendants negligently or fraudulently told him that JUUL didn't create a high risk of nicotine addiction in adolescents. The company targeted adolescents in marketing campaigns and through flavored vaping products, said the complaint in Isakoff v. JUUL Labs Inc. Isakoff claims he's suffered from nicotine addiction and personal injuries.

The other Texas JUUL case, Hanzlovic v. JUUL Labs Inc., involves two plaintiffs, Tiana Hanzlovic and Christian Davis, who alleged they started using JUUL when they were under 18 years old because of JUUL's marketing to young people. They claimed the company told youth that its product was totally safe, when it's really more potent than cigarettes, exposing teens to unsafe levels of nicotine. The plaintiffs both became addicted to nicotine, and developed lung problems and other health issues, according to the complaint.

The Hanzlovic case is already in the process of transferring to the multidistrict litigation against JUUL, pending before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. There, more than 160 cases in the MDL focus on the company's marketing, particularly to children, and alleged injuries caused by its products, including addiction, pulmonary disease and seizures.

JUUL faces a mix of personal injury and addiction cases, as well as proposed class actions brought on behalf of consumers, school districts and state and local governments, plus cases seeking medical monitoring for users going forward.

No one from JUUL's press team immediately returned an email seeking comment. A statement on the company's website said that JUUL has taken actions to combat underage use.

"At JUUL Labs, we have no higher priority than combating youth use. As data has emerged about the scope of the youth vaping issue, we have taken a series of escalating steps to combat youth access, appeal and use of vapor products," the statement reads. "Our target market is the one billion adult smokers globally, more than 70% of whom want to quit using combustible cigarettes. Offering these adult smokers a real alternative to cigarettes is a public health and commercial opportunity of historic proportions."