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Fair Share Act re-enactment faces critical Senate vote
Fix urged for current proposal that maintains status quo A legislative vehicle for Fair Share Act re-enactment is on the move again, but the bill (S.B. 1131) in its current form would be an unacceptable “reform” of the unbalanced legal doctrine of joint and several liability. PA Chamber members are pressing the Senate to restore Fair Share Act language contained in H.B. 1 and its companion, S.B. 2. H.B. 1 and its companion, S.B. 2, propose that joint and several be replaced with proportional liability in which a defendant would only be held financially responsible for an amount equal to their level of fault. (Defendants found to be more than 60 percent at fault could be responsible for the entire damage award.) The bills contain the same language as Fair Share Act legislation approved in a bipartisan fashion in 2002 and 2006. Unfortunately, the fate of both of these bills has been in the hands of a Senate Judiciary Committee chairman more sympathetic to personal injury lawyers who are content with maintaining the status quo. Instead of moving the bills from his committee, the chairman offered his own “reform” measure, which contains such broad exceptions that they negate the purpose of changing the current law at all. S.B. 1131, which was only introduced the week of June 13, includes two exceptions that strike at the PA Chamber’s efforts to restore predictability, balance and fairness to Pennsylvania’s civil justice system. The first exception would be for any case in which a minor might have a “beneficial interest” in the outcome. This doesn’t mean that a minor needs to be the plaintiff; it means that any plaintiff could claim that a child close to them has a real interest in the injured party’s award. This one exception alone could be interpreted so broadly as to apply to most any civil liability case. The second exception is for “economic damages,” which would place all defendants liable no matter how minimal their degree of fault. The committee advanced S.B. 1131 on Tuesday, June 14, with some lawmakers voting to do so only to allow movement on a vehicle for Fair Share Act re-enactment. Business, health-care, insurance and local government leaders sent a letter to the Senate pointing out the fallacies in the latest so-called ‘reform effort’ and urged that S.B. 1131’s language be amended to fall in line with the real reforms proposed in House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 2. Most other states have already recognized the unfairness of joint and several liability. That’s why more than 40 other states have either repealed this legal rule outright or never had it on the books in the first place. The PA Chamber has long led the call for legal reform. As such, members’ top priority is repealing the existing legal doctrine of joint and several liability, which has been abused by personal injury attorneys as a search for “deep pocket” defendants regardless of their degree of fault. Even if a defendant is found only minimally liable, they could be forced to pay the entire award – a rule that threatens companies large and small and discourages business investment in Pennsylvania.
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