Pressure called key to lawsuit limits

Pressure called key to lawsuit limits

Business groups urged to shout louder to win

Thursday, January 15, 2004

BY PETER L. DeCOURSEY
Of The Patriot-News

The state Senate will soon host the next battle over lawsuit-award limits, and business groups will have to fight harder and shout louder to win, key Senate leaders said yesterday.

But while the Harrisburg Regional Chamber made a constitutional amendment to cap lawsuit awards for non-economic damages its top legislative priority, business groups must do more, said Sen. Jake Corman, R-Centre.

Senate Majority Whip Jeffrey Piccola said a lawsuit caps amendment will face a February or March vote.

Proponents of the amendment "are not as loud as you should be, as you need to be," Corman said at a breakfast meeting of the chamber at the Hilton Harrisburg & Towers. "To get this done, you need to be yelling from the rooftops."

Opponents of caps have said limiting what companies and doctors pay to victims hurts the victims further, and removes a strong incentive for doctors and businesses to emphasize safe practices.

If businesses and proponents don't push wavering lawmakers harder, Corman and Piccola predicted, the amendment will either fail or be limited to medical malpractice cases.

Piccola predicted the House, which has already passed a broader amendment, will not pass the more limited amendment only for doctors.

Since the House passed the constitutional amendment last year, the Senate must approve it before the end of 2004, or start over in 2005.

Corman and Piccola have only weeks to amass the 26 Senate votes needed for passage.

Senate Republican leaders have promised Piccola and Corman a chance to vote early this year on a constitutional amendment, Piccola said.

But the wording of that amendment has yet to be determined. It will be shaped over the next few weeks by the Senate Judiciary Committee, helmed by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery.

Corman and Piccola warned that many opponents and some supporters of the caps amendment may propose a less inclusive measure, which would cap only lawsuit awards arising from medical malpractice cases.

Both of the midstate senators said they preferred a broader cap on all lawsuit damages, that would cover businesses as well as doctors and hospitals.

"That's the fight we will have," Piccola said. "We have to fight for a broad bill in committee, and if we don't get it there, we will try to amend it on the floor of the Senate, to get it right. ... There are products not being manufactured in Pennsylvania , there are jobs not being created in Pennsylvania , because of high lawsuit awards."

If the amendment passes the Senate this year, it will have to be passed by the Legislature in 2005 or 2006. Then it would go on the statewide ballot.

If the measure is approved by voters, the Legislature could enact a law imposing caps on non-economic lawsuit damages.

Caps ranging from $250,000 per case to $1 million per case have been discussed.

Other midstate lawmakers also reported on their legislative priorities, ranging from a bill protecting employers who give bad references to former employees to limits on how long after purchasing an item a consumer may sue alleging defects.