The Battle Against Junk Lawsuits in Florida

The U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform ranks states according to fairness of their legal systems. In 2004 Florida ranked 38th. This year Florida dropped to 42nd. Predatory litigation is a growing threat to the health of Florida’s economy, and spiraling litigation costs affect everyone from business owners and employees to consumers.

Governor Bush has been a strong proponent of common sense Tort Reform. As Governor Bush recently said “Lawsuit abuse is one of the greatest threats to Florida’s robust business climate. Several states have enacted tort reform recently, and with significant action, Florida risks falling behind and jeopardizing its job-friendly business climate.”

FreedomWorks supports Governor Bush’s tort reform initiatives, including:

• Eliminating Joint and Several Liability – Joint and several liability punishes a person or corporation based upon its ability to pay instead of its degree of fault, by allowing alleged wrongdoers with partial responsibility to pay more than their fair share. Florida should join the nearly two dozen states that have eliminated joint and several liability and instead assign damages based on proportionality of fault. Governor Bush urged legislators to approve legislation proposed by Rep. Don Brown (HB 1513) to eliminate joint and several liability. He also thanked Senate Judiciary Chairman Daniel Webster (SB 2566 and SB 2568) and House Judiciary Chairman David Simmons for their leadership on proportionate fault issues.

• Products Liability – When a product is defective, the company that designed and manufactured it should be held responsible. (HB 1513) and (SB 2568) eliminate products liability for retailers in cases in which the retailers had nothing to do with the design or manufacture of the product.

• Premises Liability – Property owners should not have to pay when a third party intentionally hurts someone on their property. (SB 2566) would keep property owners from being punished for the conduct of criminal wrongdoers.

• Vicarious Liability – Florida should join the majority of states and adopt “negligent entrustment” as the law, instead of automatically making the owner of a vehicle liable when someone else drives it and gets in an accident.

• Limiting Class Action Lawsuits – The goal of class action lawsuits should be compensation for those hurt. We should allow company’s accused of wrongdoing to take corrective action if it benefits plaintiffs more than a lawsuit would. We should also take steps to keep Florida taxpayers from footing the bill for cases where the class includes many plaintiffs with no connection to Florida. The Governor supports legislation that would provide residency restrictions and put the interests of plaintiffs first (SB 2564). Governor Bush thanked Senator Daniel Webster and Rep. David Simmons for their leadership on this issue.

• Asbestos Litigation – The Governor believes we need to ensure those truly impacted by exposure to asbestos are compensated in a timely manner. According to the RAND Institute, 65 percent of total dollars paid to plaintiffs in asbestos litigation have gone to people who are not ill. Ohio is one of several states that have undertaken efforts to expedite payments to sick individuals, and Florida should do the same. Governor Bush applauded the efforts of Rep. Joe Pickens (HB 1019) and Senator Daniel Webster (SB 2562) on this issue.

• Limit Venue Shopping – A reputation for awarding excessive judgments should not be the reason a case is heard in a particular court. The Governor urged the Legislature to limit civil filings to the county in which the damage occurred, the county in which the company has its principal place of business or where the property in litigation is located.

• Abuse of Amendment 3 – In November, 64 percent of Floridians voted to limit lawyers’ fees and make sure damage awards get to injured patients and their families in medical malpractice cases. The Governor is calling on the Legislature to prevent attorneys from asking Floridians to waive their rights under Amendment 3 by approving legislation sponsored by Rep. Michael Grant (HB 1067) and Senator Stephen Wise (SB 2124).

• Reversing ‘Zone of Risk’ Decisions- Because of so-called ‘Zone of Risk’ court rulings, law enforcement officers have been held civilly liable for accidents that occur while they are in pursuit of dangerous suspects. Governor Bush encouraged the Legislature to support bills limiting ‘zone of risk’ by Rep. Dwight Stansel (HB 135), Senator Daniel Webster (SB 1790 and SB 2560), Rep. Don Brown (HB 1513), and Senator Bill Posey (SB 2002) to end these types of judgments.

Please call your Florida legislator today and tell them to support these initiatives!