BOSTON -- A high-profile lawyer and thousands of Massachusetts residents from more than 200 Bay State cities and towns have banded together to file a lawsuit demanding as much as $300 from the state's Turnpike Authority, saying they have illegally been used to pay for the Big Dig.

Jan R. Schlichtmann, the attorney who gained fame battling a chemical company and ended up as the main character in a Hollywood movie about the case, is leading a team of lawyers filing the suit that includes former state Attorney General Scott Harshbarger and former Gov. Mitt Romney counsel Daniel B. Winslow.

The class-action lawsuit includes 1,650 plaintiffs from 21 states who say tolls are supposed to be used for the use of the Turnpike rather than the $13 billion Big Dig project.

The lawsuit, filed in Middlesex District Court, asserts that 58 percent of tolls collected go to paying for Big Dig roads.

To pay for the returned tolls, the state would have to choose between raising taxes, imposing tolls on Interstate 93, or requiring the Turnpike Authority to sell some of its real estate, the Boston Globe reported.