by Dave Williams | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A sharply divided Georgia Senate passed a comprehensive tort reform bill Friday that is Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s top priority for the 2025 General Assembly session.
Senate Bill 68, which the Senate’s GOP majority passed 33-21 primarily along party lines, is aimed at reining in huge jury awards in civil lawsuits Kemp and his legislative allies say are raising insurance premiums, forcing businesses to lay off workers or close their doors and reducing access to health care by driving physicians out of Georgia and shuttering hospitals.
“This legislation is not about protecting corporate profits. It’s not about caving in to the demands of insurance companies or denying Georgians their ability to be fully and fairly compensated when they need to go to court,” said Senate President Pro Tempore John Kennedy, R-Macon, the bill’s chief sponsor, responding to criticism of the measure leveled by Democrats and trial lawyers. “Instead, it’s about stabilizing costs and putting all Georgians, no matter where your zip code is, first.”
The wide-ranging bill contains a number of provisions, including:
- prohibiting plaintiff lawyers in a civil lawsuit from asking a jury for a specific amount of damages until closing arguments.
- requiring judges to rule on motions to dismiss a case filed by defense lawyers before the start of what tends to be an expensive discovery process.
- prohibiting plaintiff lawyers from filing motions to dismiss a case and refiling a lawsuit after the jury has been seated and opening statements have taken place. Refiling at such a late stage forces defendants to spend money unnecessarily.
- prohibits lawyers for either side from seeking double recoveries of attorney fees from the other side.
- allows defense lawyers to introduce into evidence whether a plaintiff injured in an auto accident was wearing a seat belt.
- establishes “premises liability” guidelines for when plaintiffs can sue business owners for negligence due to injuries suffered from criminal acts committed by a third party outside of the defendant’s control.
- allows plaintiffs to seek economic damages based only on the actual costs of the medical care they receive.
- requires liability in a civil suit to be determined before the jury considers damages if either the plaintiff or defendant requests such “bifurcation” of trials.
Senators unanimously passed an amendment submitted on the floor Friday with the governor’s backing that would allow deliberating juries to ask the judge whether a plaintiff has health insurance, the amount of the injured party’s medical bill, and how much of the claim the insurance company paid.
The amendment would strike a balance between the interests of business owners bombarded with skyrocketing insurance premiums and the constitutional rights of injured Georgians seeking compensation, said Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, a plaintiff lawyer by trade and the amendment’s sponsor.
“No one wants to be crushed by baseless claims,” Hatchett said. “At the same time, I believe no one wants corporations operating unchecked.”
After Hatchett’s amendment passed, the Senate defeated a second amendment brought by Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes, D-Duluth, that would have prohibited insurance companies from raising premiums faster than the annual rate of inflation. Her amendment died by the same 33-21 margin.
“Nothing in this bill requires a single penny of premium reduction,” Islam Parkes said of Kennedy’s underlying legislation. “What this bill does is hand more power to the insurance industry.”
Senate Democrats also introduced alternative tort reform legislation Thursday aimed specifically at the premises liability issue. Senate Bill 223 would shield business owners from any negligence lawsuit brought simply because their business is located in a high-crime area. Business owners who take reasonable steps to ensure customers’ safety such as installing security cameras and adequate lighting would have a “rebuttable presumption” against liability.
In closing Friday’s debate, Kennedy acknowledged there are no guarantees that his bill will result in lower insurance premiums. But he said other states that have enacted similar tort reform measures have started to see lower rates.
“If we don’t pass Senate Bill 68, your insurance premiums, my insurance premiums, and rest of Georgia’s insurance premiums will go up,” he said.
Senate Bill 68 now heads to the state House of Representatives.
by Dave Williams | Feb 21, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Supporters of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge are taking another crack at protecting the environmentally fragile swamp from mining.
Two bills introduced in the Georgia House of Representatives Thursday call for prohibiting mining along Trail Ridge, the Okefenokee’s eastern hydrologic boundary, where Alabama-based Twin Pines Minerals is seeking state permits to open a titanium mine. One bill would place a five-year moratorium on mining, while the other would prohibit future mining altogether.
Both bills are sponsored by state Rep. Darlene Taylor, R-Thomasville, who has introduced legislation during the last several years to prohibit mining adjacent to the Okefenokee. Thus far, none of those measures has reached the House floor for a vote despite dozens of lawmakers signing on as cosponsors.
The House did pass a bill late in last year’s legislative session calling for a three-year moratorium on mining along Trail Ridge, but the Georgia Senate didn’t take it up before the General Assembly adjourned for the year.
“Both of these bills provide the opportunity for all the legislators and leadership to respond to their constituents to save the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge from mining that would harm the swamp and swamp tourism upon which the economies of the local communities depend,” said Rena Peck, executive director of the nonprofit Georgia Rivers.
Twin Pines officials say the demonstration mine they’re planning along Trail Ridge would not threaten the Okefenokee and that the native vegetation would be restored after mining activity is completed. But scientific studies have concluded the project would significantly damage one of the largest intact freshwater wetlands in North America by drawing down its water level and increasing the risk of drought and fires.
by Dave Williams | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – Legislation reforming the salary structure for superior court and statewide judges in Georgia overwhelmingly cleared the state House of Representatives Thursday.
House Bill 85, which the House passed 163-7, is aimed at superior court judges, who currently are paid both a state salary and optional county subsidies.
Those local subsidies vary significantly, Rep. Rob Leverett, R-Elberton, the bill’s chief sponsor, told his House colleagues.
“That has led to a lot of disparities in pay throughout the state,” he said.
Leverett’s bill would cap local supplements paid to most superior court judges at 10% of their state salary or $20,106. The measure also includes provisions ensuring that no judge’s salary would be cut by the measure.
House Bill 86, another Leverette bill that passed 167-6, would reform the salary structure for statewide judges, including justices of the Georgia Supreme Court and state Court of Appeals as well as the judge who presides over the Statewide Business Court.
Under the bill, state Supreme Court justices would receive 100% of the salary paid to federal judges in the Northern District of Georgia. Judges on the Court of Appeals would get 99% of the federal judges’ salary, and the Statewide Business Court judge would be paid 95% of that salary.
The judge presiding over a new statewide tax court the General Assembly created last year also would get 95% of a federal judge’s salary in the Northern District.
Both bills now head to the Georgia Senate.
by Dave Williams | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The state House of Representatives passed legislation Thursday that would put the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA) in the gas business.
House Bill 51, which cleared the House 120-55, would allow municipal natural gas providers to borrow money from GEFA to expand gas supplies.
The legislation is needed particularly in rural Georgia, Rep. Leesa Hagan, R-Lyons, said on the House floor before Thursday’s vote. Hagan’s district includes all or parts of six rural counties.
“Reliable energy infrastructure is the backbone of economic growth, public safety, and quality of life in our rural communities,” Hagan said. “This bill ensures that GEFA has the necessary authority to support these critical projects.”
But freshman Rep. Gabriel Sanchez, D-Smyrna, said the bill provides a “broad solution to a specific problem.” He suggested the goal of expanding natural gas supplies in Georgia would be better left to city utility systems and private-sector utilities.
Currently, GEFA focuses on financing water and sewer projects across the state.
“Adding on another whole industry could cause hardships,” Sanchez said.
Hagan said GEFA would stick to financing gas projects under House Bill 51 and would not regulate gas systems.
The bill now moves to the Georgia Senate.
by Dave Williams | Feb 20, 2025 | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – A Georgia House Republican and Democrat introduced bipartisan legislation Thursday to overhaul the system used to compensate the wrongfully convicted in Georgia.
Current law requires a person who has been exonerated after spending years in prison for a crime they didn’t commit to find a legislative sponsor to introduce a compensation resolution. The House has passed a series of such resolutions in recent years, but the Senate has refused to take them up.
“Two wrongs do not make a right,” said Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome, chief sponsor of House Bill 533. “That is our challenge here.”
Dempsey’s bill would remove the General Assembly from the process of compensating wrongfully convicted Georgians. Instead, claims for compensation would be heard by administrative law judges, who would make a recommendation to the chief justice of the state Supreme Court.
“We’re trying to create a system that is fair and takes politics out of the process,” said Rep. Scott Holcomb, D-Atlanta, a cosponsor of the measure.
Exonerated individuals who are able to prove their innocence based on a “preponderance of evidence” would receive $75,000 in compensation for every year they have been incarcerated.
Holcomb said people released from prison after years behind bars are at a huge disadvantage because they can’t get a loan to start a business and haven’t been able to save for retirement.
“Is ($75,000) a fair figure? No,” he said. “Is it a reasonable figure? Yes.”
The bill has some influential Republican backing. Cosponsors include House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration, R-Mulberry, and Rep. Tyler Paul Smith, R-Bremen, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee (Non-Civil).
