Tort Reform: An Attack On Consumer & Constitutional Rights
Attorney
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South Carolina Senator Larry Martin recently introduced Bill S.350, which seeks to provide limits on the award of non-economic and punitive damages in personal injury actions. The bill seeks to limit non-economic damages (pain, suffering, and loss of enjoyment of life) to $350,000 in all personal injury actions, regardless of the separate causes of action on which the claim is based. A total cap of $1,050,000, regardless of the number of defendants, would also be implemented. To “cap” it all off, punitive awards would be limited to three times the actual award or $250,000, whichever is greater.
This reform goes too far too fast, especially considering that South Carolina passed tort reform only 5 years ago. While the State of South Carolina needs to encourage business, there has to be a balance. This bill reduces corporate responsibility and erodes the duty to take reasonable care to avoid doing harm to others.
The Truth about the Constitutionality of Tort Reform
Tort Reform raises serious and fundamental challenges to the role of the jury in the administration of justice and protecting American freedoms. Tort Reform continues to chip away at our Amendment VII constitutional rights. Such reform essentially guts the Seventh Amendment, which reads: “In suits at common law, where the value in controversy exceeds twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved.” These proposed arbitrary caps on damages allow corporations to plan and budget for their own irresponsibility more effectively.
The use of lawsuits to compel improvements in product safety has historical underpinnings as a fundamental concept dating back to centuries-old common law, and the U.S. civil justice system. Industries need incentives to improve their practices and the safety of their products. It has been an American tradition that a primary source of that incentive comes from the imminent possibility of litigation.
Tort reform advocates seek to limit the rights and protections our Constitution provides to those who are injured from defective products, toxic chemicals, medical malpractice, etc. As a result, the independence of our nation’s individualized system of justice and democracy is directly challenged. The American jury system epitomizes our democracy by allowing common citizens to decide winners and losers. Common citizens, unlike legislators and judges, are typically not influenced by big business.
Thomas Jefferson, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, and third President of our country, had this to say about our constitutional right to a jury trial: “But there are certain principles in which all agree, and which all cherish as vitally essential to the protection of the life, liberty, property, and safety of the citizen:…Trial by jury, the best of all safeguards for the person, the property, and the fame of every individual…” – Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson went on to declare that “I consider trial by jury as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.”
Justice John Marshall proclaimed in Marbury v. Madison that: "The very essence of civil liberty certainly consists in the right of every individual to claim the protection of the laws, whenever he receives an injury. One of the first duties of government is to afford that protection.”
Tort reform limits redress and favors perpetrators of harm – a class with disproportionately high transient political power – over victims of harm. Furthermore, tort reform has demonstrable disproportionately harmful effects on women, children, and the elderly. See Lucinda M. Finley, The Hidden Victims of Tort Reform: Women, Children, and the Elderly, Emory Law Journal, Fall 2004.
Do not let tort reformists, big business and corporations attack our fundamental rights by misleading accounts of jury trials and its propaganda war on individual rights. Bill S.350 will further eliminate corporate accountability and appears to put a price on South Carolina consumer safety.