STATE SENATE hearings are scheduled for today in Harrisburg on the familiar arguments over how much someone should get in a lawsuit for pain and suffering.

But there is a relatively new voice in this debate. It's not just the doctors who want to hold their liabilities down. Private businesses are now also on the bandwagon, demanding that caps be placed on what they should pay someone hurt by a product or at the workplace.

Last year, the state House approved an amendment that would cap lawsuit awards for non-economic damages.

State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf of Montgomery County is chairing hearings on the the Senate version of the proposed amendment. The Senate has until the end of the year to approve the measure.

It shouldn't be for the same reasons that Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Smoke-Free Pennsylvania, the AFL-CIO and others scheduled to testify have been arguing: The amendment gives companies too free a license.

This page supports tort reform and a cap on pain-and-suffering awards as a way of addressing the medical malpractice crisis which has hit Pennsylvania doctors hard.

But the tort reformers in Harrisburg have gotten greedy, and are now trying to give businesses blanket protection from tough lawsuits.

According to the Harrisburg Patriot News, Sen. Majority Whip Jeff Piccola, who has led the charge on capping pain-and-suffering awards for doctors, is also leading the drive to expand the protection to private businesses as well.

"There are products not being manufactured in Pennsylvania, there are jobs not being created in Pennsylvania, because of high lawsuit awards."

Really? And here we thought the state's slumping economy was due to an under-educated work force, lack of government investment and high taxes. Who would have guessed it was those evil lawyers again?

The lawyers are now firing back. On Friday, the Pennsylvania Citizens for Fairness (otherwise know as the state trial lawyers) called for Piccola to recuse himself from the caps debate because they discovered the senator is a director of the Eastern Atlantic Insurance Co. and the Builders Direct Insurance Co. Given this conflict, recusal seems a good idea.