(The Center Square) – Sweeping tort reform legislation in Georgia on Thursday passed the House of Representatives 91-82, with some Republicans voting against it and three Democrats supporting it.
Senate Bill 68 would limit some liability awards and protect businesses from lawsuits for acts outside of their control. The goal, according to the bill’s backers, is to ease high insurance premiums blamed on high jury awards in civil cases.
Rep. James Burchett, R- Waycross, said one business owner told him he was afraid to put his business name on his trucks for fear of a lawsuit.
“They’ve built these family-owned businesses their whole life,” Burchett said. “It takes one, it takes one piece of litigation to take everything away from them.”
Democrats have questioned Republican claims that the bill would drive down insurance costs. Rep. Stacey Evans, D-Atlanta, said not one insurance company nor did Insurance Commissioner John King testify before a House subcommittee.
King told a Senate committee he couldn’t say when rates would decline if the bill passes.
“I don’t think you’ll see an immediate one year reduction because the companies are going to watch. This has a lagging effect,” King said. “I think it is going to be a slow decline but at least we can stop the rates from increasing at the rate that they’re increasing.”
The vote comes after a compromise on some portions of the bill, including one that would exempt victims of sex trafficking from some of the new stringent terms in the legislation. Evans said the bill is unfair to other rape victims who were not trafficked.
“There’s not one line in this bill that does not allow a rape victim to bring a claim,” Burchett said. “It’s disingenuous to say so. No one in the chamber would support a bill that does that.”
Georgia ranked fourth in the American Tort Reform Association’s “Judicial Hellholes” report, dropping from the top spot only because other states had a larger volume of “abuses,” the organization said. Nuclear verdicts cost Georgians a “tort tax” of $1,372.94 each year, according to the association and costs the state 137,658 jobs annually.
The bill goes back to the Senate for approval of the amended legislation. Gov. Brian Kemp threatened lawmakers with a special session if the bill does not pass.
