ATLANTA — The Georgia Chamber of Commerce has its sights set on several aspects of court procedure it would like changed to lower businesses’ costs of getting sued.
Thursday, it held a half-day conference for a few dozen lawyers and lobbyists, capped by a speech from former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour who recounted how similar changes were enacted there that resulted in a 95 percent decline in medical-malpractice suits in the first year.
“You’re going to win out in the districts, not lobbying in the halls of the Capitol,” he said, arguing for a grassroots campaign concentrating on health care rather than big business.
Also speaking was ex-Rep. Joseph M. Nixon, a Houston Republican who authored that state’s sweeping tort reform in 2003 that he said led to 35,000 physicians opening practices in Texas.
Many of the provisions enacted in those states haven’t been introduced as legislation in Georgia yet, but the chamber is pushing House Bill 643 that would limit what electronic records a business is required to keep in case of a suit.
“This is a hidden cost in many ways that people don’t appreciate,” said Rocco Testani, lawyer with Southerland Asbill & Brennan in Atlanta.
He said many judges think retrieval is as simple as the push of a button, but keeping records for years from every employee email account and laptop quickly becomes expensive. Already, 30 other states have passed similar laws, but lawyers who make their living suing businesses don’t like major parts of HB 643 even though it’s the result of a broad task force.
“We appreciate ... addressing the unique challenges relating to the discovery of electronically stored information. However, the bill as introduced erects unnecessary obstacles to a party’s appropriate effort to secure data exclusively within the possession of the other party to a case,” said Buck Rogers, president of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association.
Adding another concept to the mix, Paul Milich, a professor at the Georgia State University School of Law, recommended introduction of a model bill drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council that would eliminate what he called “phantom damages.” That’s where a person sues to recover the full amount of his or her medical bills after an accident even though the hospital had agreed to accept a smaller amount from the health-insurance company. The difference between what the hospital billed and what the insurance paid is the “phantom” amount that the person suing gets to keep.
“The goal here is to get rid of the windfalls, and that should reduce the payments,” he said.
But the Trial Lawyers say such a law would hurt consumers.
“We believe that penalizing the responsible conduct of law abiding Georgia consumers who do the right thing and purchase health insurance, while letting wrongdoers and their profit-driven insurers off the hook, would be the height of irresponsible governance,” Rogers said.
These bills and others the business group may introduce are likely to put the focus of much of next year’s 40-day session on various aspects of tort reform. The session begins Jan 13.