Scranton Times Tribune

Crisis Becomes Political Wedge

01/25/2004

Republican leaders in the state Senate vow to conduct a committee vote, by Tuesday, that would sap their own credibility while revealing an anti-consumer agenda and their scant regard for citizens' rights. At issue is a bill that would place a $250,000 cap on non-economic damages -- known most often as punitive damages or, in medical malpractice cases, "pain and suffering" damages -- in all types of civil litigation. Thus, the lawmakers have taken a valid debate about medical liability cases, and attempted to use it in behalf of a favored constituency -- big business. Consider the potential impact if the bill were to become law. A leaking landfill that poisons a child who has no income, and thus, no economic damages to claim -- $250,000 for life, regardless of the scope of the life-altering, or life-ending damage to the individual, for example. And the list is endless. In addition to the injustice of arbitrarily limiting such awards, the bill assumes that the court system and citizens -- jurors -- are inherently incompetent to achieve just awards. Moreover, it would limit the deterrence against dangerous products and practices that such suits help to foster. And since the universal cap would require altering the state constitution, the lawmakers also assume that a majority of citizens are dumb enough to forfeit their rights in a referendum. Lawmakers who care about those rights should not let this giveaway to lobbyists progress that far.

©Scranton Times Tribune 2004