Morgan Adams is the Secretary for the ATLA Republican Trial Lawyers Caucus and he prepared the following materials on why Republicans should be aginst Tort Reform. It's worth reading, as he has done a great job.
The points are:
1. It is a State's Rights issue. Some states have Caps and tort reform, some don't. If the citizens wanted tort reform they can easily pass it at the state level and we do not need the federal government involved.
2. The Taxpayers eventually pay the tab for the wrongdoers negligence with tort reform as proposed. Given the rates of medical inflation and the skeptical nature of juries most Pf's do not get everything they ask for the medical care of a critically injured person, much less provide for "new procedures" and drugs which have not been invented or discovered yet. If the pf runs out of money, they fall back on state and federal welfare programs and the taxpayers foot the bill.
3. Morally, laws should be fair to all parties and not to a select privileged few. George Orwell said "all pigs are equal, some pigs are more equal than others." Do we want to create a class of more equal pigs?
4. Juries are trusted with the death penalty, but they can't be trusted with $? That dog don't hunt unless we value life less than money.
5. Caps value life. An old person in a nursing home and a fetus have no economic value. In fact it can be argued they are an expense, and cost money. It is wrong to value life in this way. Terry Shivo's life, max value $250K? I don't think there are many Republicans that would agree with that.
6. Individuals are supposed to accept responsibility for their actions. If I run a red light for the 1st time in 50K stops, and paralyze someone, wouldn't you and I be held responsible? What about a business that releases toxic waste into our water supply? Shouldn't everyone be held accountable for their own wrongdoing?
7. It attacks the whole legal system and the constitution, not just the runaway jury. Our constitution says we are entitled to a trial by jury (around here it is the Dr's insisting on the trial by jury!). Then the judge reviews. Then the court of appeals. Then the State Supreme Court. Then the US Supreme Court. You have to say the system is broke at every level, and it simply isn't.
8. It costs money to take a case to trial, and lawyers are small business men. They do not throw good money after bad.
9. There are already penalties in the system for filing frivolous cases.
10. Caps penalize the most injured and protect the biggest wrongdoers (the drunk/drugged Dr, the Dr who cuts off the wrong leg, the nurse who puts in the wrong type blood.)
11. There is nothing wrong with reform, everything can be better. Tort reform as proposed isn't reform, it is destruction. Is there a lawyer in Georgia that doesn't believe SB3 (2005 Tort Reform statutes) should be reformed in one way or another? The issue is what is a proper reform and how do we manage it to protect the rights of all American's, all citizen's, all Georgians.
