Tort reform in Pennsylvania would take target off insurers’ backs
A business council and insurance trade coalition in Pennsylvania are pushing for passage of the Fair Share Act this year to improve the state’s tort climate and “retain high-quality, family-sustaining jobs.”
The Fair Share Act would repeal the legal doctrine of joint and several liability, under which a defendant found 1% at fault can be held responsible for the entire court verdict and financial damages award, according to the Pennsylvania Business Council.
“States are really approaching lawsuit abuse reform as a means to promote growth, to try and turn the state around economically, to enact lawsuit abuse reform as a means to spur growth and spur interest in the state for employers to come here,” Kari Kissinger, government affairs director for Insurance Agents and Brokers (IA&B) of Pennsylvania, told IFAwebnews.com. “We’re seeing it around the country in terms of governors and the legislature coming in and approaching this as a way to address those broader problems.”
The coalition, whose members include the IA&B, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Insurance Federation of Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Business Council and the Pennsylvania Medical Society, said the so-called lawsuit-abuse reform package must also include: protections for manufacturers and innocent sellers of products; improvements to the medical liability climate; an end to venue shopping in all civil liability cases; the ability of health-care providers to acknowledge, express empathy for, or take ownership of an unforeseen outcome without the risk of retaliatory litigation based solely on those statements; and fair limitations on non-economic damages, among other things.
“The current tort climate in the state is not conducive for the business community and more specifically the insurance industry,” Kissinger said. “Insurance companies are being targeted and pay out large awards, and really what that means is it trickles down to our members, insurance agents and insurance consumers. It means higher premiums for insurance.”
The state’s General Assembly tried passing the bill twice before. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the law on procedural grounds in 2002, and then the bill was vetoed in 2006 by then-Gov. Ed Rendell, according to a coalition of business and health-care organizations in favor of the Fair Trade Act.
A state’s legal climate has a “direct bearing” on job creation; the cost of goods and services; the cost and availability of health care; and impacts business decisions such as where to locate or expand, and even what products to introduce or improve, the coalition wrote in a letter to Capitol Hill.
Other states that have not yet modified or abolished their joint and several liability statutes are Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Illinois, Alabama and Kansas, according to Kissinger.
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