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Florida Legislature 2005 (click for ongoing coverage)

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Lawmakers serve up tort reform

State legislators have a full plate of suggestions for easing businesses' trip through the courts. Grab a spoon.

By JONI JAMES
Published April 3, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - To the uninitiated, it can sound like an expensive dessert: "tort reform."

After all, Republican Gov. Jeb Bush said he's never seen a recipe for it that he didn't like. And two of Florida's most powerful business lobbying groups are hoping lots of it is on order in this year's legislative session.

But what is tort reform? And who really wants it?

The oblique catch phrase is just a campaign slogan, an umbrella term used nationwide by the business lobby for a wide array of issues dealing with civil courts. Their goal in Tallahassee as elsewhere: Rewrite state laws so businesses face lower and more predictable losses in court.

But it's far from a cohesive program. The push for civil law change covers a multitude of piecemeal ideas that are advocated by particular business groups looking to limit their exposure to lawsuits in particular places. The individual items read less like a single dish than an a la carte menu:

There's a rewrite of class-action law; a crackdown on expert witnesses; a proposal to make it harder to be excused from jury duty. Nursing homes want caps on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases, insurers want to make it harder to be sued for not settling cases.

And those are just some of the ideas that aren't expected to get very far during the remaining five weeks of the annual legislative session.

Despite having two businessmen in charge of the state Legislature - House Speaker Allan Bense is a Panama City entrepreneur, Senate President Tom Lee is a Brandon home builder - the appetite for big civil litigation overhaul is tempered this year in Tallahassee.

Lee told a business group recently that he understands their needs but said the "devil is in the details."

We would like "to make sure that the business community has more assurance of what is expected of them, without enjoying the benefits of blanket immunity which should never be a part of a litigation system," Lee said last week.

That's good news for opponents, most vocal among them the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers. They argue the business lobby's plan is cohesive in one sense: In nearly every instance the proposals involve giving businesses more leverage in court.

The business lobby, most notably a newly formed pair of "tort reform" institutes backed by the Florida Chamber of Commerce and Associated Industries of Florida, say they're in for the long haul. What doesn't get passed this year will be brought back again.

But what ideas are in play now? Our reporting found about a half-dozen items that are expected to spark significant debate before the Legislature adjourns May 8.

[Last modified April 3, 2005, 00:09:18]