Lawmakers Push Tort Reform Measures

From the Charleston Daily Mail February 18, 2003, Tuesday
Copyright 2003 Charleston Newspapers

When they walked out, doctors appealed to patients to show the need for medical malpractice tort reform, and so far it looks like the tactic worked.

Now Republicans are appealing to people’s pocketbooks as a way to draw attention to the need for tort reform in all insurance areas.

House Republicans called a press conference this morning, saying that automobile and homeowners insurance is too high in West Virginia because of legal loopholes that often burn insurance companies. They are pushing for five bills they say will help lower insurance costs by changing the way West Virginia courts handle insurance claims.

Delegates from border counties talked about how people in West Virginia pay up to a third more for insurance than their counterparts across the border.

“Everybody pays for our terrible tort laws,” said Tom Azinger, R-Wood. “If we don’t change our tort laws in West Virginia, we’re going to have very few businesses and very few people.”

House Minority Leader Charles Trump said the bills will help businesses afford insurance, similar to the way doctors expect to be better able to afford malpractice insurance after tort reforms there are enacted.

“We believe uniformly that the enactment of these bills will lead to a better business climate,” said House Minority Leader Charles Trump. “Our citizens are 49th in per capita income. It is unconscionable that insurance rates are so much higher here.”

Some opponents of the additional tort reform bills have argued that further changes in the legal system will only hurt victims by restricting their rights. Victims’ rights groups and labor organizations say that insurance companies just don’t want to pay out what they owe.

Azinger said insurance companies are losing so much money they are leaving the state, and that they aren’t being greedy.

“There’s no profit there to be had,” he said. “Tort reform is absolutely necessary for all types of insurance, not just medical malpractice insurance.”

Both Democrat and Republican leaders support the bills.

All five were co-sponsored by House Speaker Bob Kiss, D-Raleigh, who also supports additional tort reform.

The bills deal with venue law, collateral sources, joint and several liability, third party bad faith law and medical monitoring.

“Each of these bills is a bipartisan measure,” Trump said.

The five bills will be sent to the House Judiciary Committee, which scheduled a public hearing for this afternoon on the medical monitoring and third party claims bills.

If lawmakers decide they want to pass the additional tort reform bills, they’ll have to act quickly. Next Friday is the deadline for the House to get all its bills out of committees.

Trump said he thought there was enough time left to get the bills passed.

“The momentum is there,” he said. “There is time. We’re trying to generate public interest.”