ATLANTA – Efforts to enact sweeping changes for aspects of Georgia’s civil courts stumbled in the state Senate Tuesday after the sponsor of a wide-ranging “tort reform” bill shelved the measure following hours of discussion.
The sprawling Senate Bill 415 would alter many areas of Georgia’s civil judicial system from landlord protections and large medical damages to key tweaks on what evidence can be presented in court like seatbelt use.
But the bill ran up against opposition
from Senate lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, wary that too many changes
were crammed into a single bill. They narrowly voted 27-26 to table the bill
upon request from its sponsor, Senate Majority Whip Steve Gooch.
Gooch’s bill marks what may be the last push for major tort-reform legislation this year, after a separate bill he sponsored was gutted in committee and a similar measure in the Georgia House of Representatives stalled.
“There’s a long road ahead on this bill,”
Gooch said after the table vote.
Bills have until Thursday, “crossover
day,” to pass out of the chamber from which they originated – or they will be
dead this legislative session.
The last significant tort-reform bill
that made it through the Georgia General Assembly came in 2005, when lawmakers
set a $350,000 cap on non-economic damage awards only to see the Georgia
Supreme Court rule the limit unconstitutional in 2010.
Georgia’s trial lawyers have long opposed
legislative stabs at tort reform, arguing many of the proposed changes to the
state’s court system would harm everyday citizens to the benefit of big
businesses and insurance companies.
But backers of Gooch’s bill emphasize Georgia’s worsening reputation as a lawsuit-happy environment out of step with the state’s business-friendly image. Speaking from the Senate floor Tuesday, Gooch said large lawsuit awards in recent years have driven up Georgia’s insurance rates and scared off prospective businesses, especially insurance companies.
“Georgia’s civil justice system is
currently one of the most dangerous places for business in the country,” said
Gooch, R-Dahlonega.
Last year, the Institute for Legal Reform
ranked Georgia’s civil justice system 41st among all states, down from 24th
just seven years ago. Georgia was also labeled the sixth worst “Judicial
Hellhole” in the American Tort Reform Association’s annual rating.
Some of the big-ticket items in Gooch’s
bill include a prohibition against seeking “phantom damages,” or monetary
awards beyond what a suing person will actually pay for medical care after an
injury, and broad legal immunity for landlords when guests or other people who
are not leaseholders injure themselves on an owner’s property.
The bill would also allow juries to
consider evidence in lawsuits involving people injured in vehicular accidents
who were not wearing their seatbelts. Representatives for insurers say seatbelt
evidence should be treated like motorcycle helmets, the use of which is
admissible as evidence, while trial attorneys argue the change would have a
chilling effect on crash victims.
Also, Gooch’s bill would require payment
agreements to be disclosed between health insurers and third-party groups that
pay hospital bills, block juries from hearing certain details about how
monetary damages would be divvied up and separate considerations of liability
and damages into different trials.
“In combination, these factors level the
playing field and let juries get practical results based on the evidence,” said
Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, who pushed strongly for the bill.
Opposition from both sides of the aisle
surfaced Tuesday in an hours-long debate from the Senate floor.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Jesse
Stone called the measure unwieldy and pushed too quickly to the floor after
clearing an insurance-focused committee instead of the courts-focused committee
he chairs.
“Folks, this bill has not been probably
vetted,” said Stone, R-Waynesboro. “It is nowhere close to being properly
effective, even with all the amendments flying around.”
Sen. Harold Jones II, D-Augusta,
highlighted part of the bill that would lengthen the statute of limitations to
file lawsuits for victims of felony crimes only, not misdemeanors. That change
could leave victims of violent misdemeanors like domestic violence with no
recourse to seek financial compensation, he said.
“It’s so problematic for those who are
victims of crime,” Jones said.
Sen. Renee Unterman, R-Buford, also
chastised the bill’s scope and urged its provisions to be considered
separately.
“Yes, there needs to be tort reform,”
Unterman said. “But let’s take a bite out of that apple. Let’s not take the
whole apple crate.”
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate passed legislation Tuesday aimed at expanding the number of students with special needs in Georgia who could qualify for scholarships to help them attend private schools.
Critics frame the measure, Senate Bill 386, as a voucher program likely to funnel state funds from needy rural schools and give families with more financial means a leg up to enroll their children in private schools.
Since 2007, Georgia students with
physical or mental disabilities who have specialized education plans have been
able to qualify for state-funded scholarships to help offset the costs of
tuition and transferring to a private school.
Last year, nearly 5,000 students received
scholarships averaging around $6,300 per student to enroll in private schools
at a total cost to the state of roughly $33 million, according to the Georgia
Department of Education.
Senate Bill 386, sponsored by Sen. Renee
Unterman, would allow children who have accommodation plans, called “504
plans,” under Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act to also qualify for
the special-needs scholarship, along with students who have individualized
education plans.
Students would still have to attend a
year of public school before they could take advantage of the scholarship,
unless they received special-education services in preschool, were adopted or
are in foster care.
Unterman, R-Buford, said the changes
proposed in her bill would give many students with special needs and their
families more choice over where they could attend school.
“It’s not a cookie-cutter school system,”
Unterman said. “There are people and families that operate outside the box.”
The bill passed by a 33-22 vote that fell
along party lines. It now goes to the Georgia House of Representatives.
Several Democratic senators criticized
the bill as a possible backdoor largely for wealthy families who can afford to
pay the medical costs involved in getting a doctor’s diagnosis of a condition
that would qualify for a federal accommodation plan. They also argued wealthier
parents could more easily cover the private-school tuition costs beyond what
the limited state scholarship would fund.
Those factors could give families in
metro Atlanta an advantage to secure scholarship funds over families in rural
parts of the state with fewer financial means, said Sen. Elena Parent,
D-Atlanta. She also pointed out the bill could allow students with behavioral
conditions like attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to qualify for
the scholarship.
“We are sending the message that we care
a lot more about the education of wealthy families in metro Atlanta than we do
about everyone else,” Parent said.
Others questioned how much more the state
would end up paying with the expanded special-needs criteria. A fiscal note
attached to the bill estimates between 2,800 and 8,600 more students may start
receiving the scholarship, costing the state between $9.5 million and $28.5
million annually.
Senate Education Committee Chairman P.K.
Martin said the bill was tightened in committee to narrowly tailor scholarship
qualifications to more severe permanent physical and mental ailments than the
federal 504 plans may cover. He said the tighter criteria should curb potential
runaway costs.
“There’s not going to be a run on
vouchers if we pass this bill,” said Martin, R-Lawrenceville.
Coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Classes are being suspended Tuesday for one of Georgia’s
largest public school districts after a teacher working at two schools in
Atlanta tested positive for coronavirus.
The teacher who contracted COVID-19 likely came into contact
with students and other employees while working at two middle schools in the
southwest metro Atlanta area, said Fulton County Schools Superintendent Mike
Looney.
Looney said the teacher “felt ill at work” last Friday and
was taken to a local hospital. He declined to give identifying details about
the teacher or where the person was hospitalized.
Looney said he did not know how many people the teacher had
interacted with since contracting the virus or the teacher’s movements within
the local community. He added the district “had not seen an uptick” in student
absences lately.
“At this time, because we have now a faculty member that has
had a lot of contact with students and employees … we felt it was prudent to
pause, to get additional information and to clean,” Looney said.
The schools where the teacher worked include Bear Creek
Middle School in Fairburn and Woodland Middle School in East Point, Looney
said. Both cancelled classes early on Monday.
A third school, Creekside High School in Fairburn, also
closed early Monday since it is located close to the two middle schools, Looney
said.
The district includes more than 100 schools in Fulton County
with about 93,500 enrolled students and 14,000 employees, according to the district’s
website.
Looney said he made the decision to close all schools in the
district all day Tuesday to clean and sanitize them. The closure will also give
county and state health officials time to assess the extent of contact the
teacher had with other people, he said.
At a news conference Monday afternoon, Georgia Schools
Superintendent Richard Woods said state education officials are not
recommending any other school districts to close right now.
“Georgians can be confident that the safety of our schools are our highest priority,” Woods said.
Gov. Brian Kemp gives an update on coronavirus in Georgia on March 9, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Speaking Monday afternoon, Gov. Brian
Kemp said another person from South Korea traveling through Hartsfield-Jackson
Atlanta International Airport was “displaying symptoms” of coronavirus at the
airport. Officials are awaiting the results of his testing, Kemp said.
The governor stressed more people are
likely to test positive for the virus as state health officials ramp up
testing.
“As the cases become more numerous across
the country, we are definitely going to see more cases in Georgia,” Kemp said.
The state lab has tested between 50 and 60 people so far after receiving 2,500 diagnostic kits last week from the federal government, said Georgia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey. She said health officials are seeing a pattern of the virus largely affecting elderly people and those with chronic health issues.
On Monday, state and federal officials
geared up for Dobbins Air Reserve Base to temporarily host 34 Georgia residents
and several others from the East Coast aboard the Grand Princess cruise ship,
where dozens of passengers have tested positive for the virus.
The 34 Georgians who arrive at the
Marietta-based facility after disembarking in Oakland, Calif., will be
monitored in their homes so that they will not have to remain quarantined on
the military base, Toomey said.
“This ensures the safety of the public,
but it will also give them the comfort of their homes,” Toomey said.
Elsewhere, state health and
emergency-preparedness officials have readied a quarantine site at Hard Labor
Creek State Park in Morgan County. Seven trailers meant to house
coronavirus-afflicted persons have already been delivered to the park and “are
operational now if they’re needed,” said Georgia Emergency Management Director
Homer Bryson.
Bryson said state Department of Natural
Resources officials picked the roughly 5,000-acre park south of Athens due to
its central location in the state and the ability to isolate the trailers from
the rest of the property. The trailers are owned by the state Department of
Public Health, which purchased them “with this intent in mind,” Bryson said.
Toomey added the trailer-quarantine site
will host infected persons who are not from Georgia or the U.S. and lack a
situation “conducive for home monitoring.”
Georgia joined a growing list of states with confirmed COVID-19 cases earlier this month after a father and his son from Fulton County tested positive for the virus following the father’s trip to Milan, Italy.
The novel strain of coronavirus is
thought to spread largely by “respiratory droplets” when someone coughs or
sneezes after symptoms are present, according to the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. Symptoms appear within two to 14 days of
contraction and include fever, coughing and shortness of breath.
State Epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek
stressed people can only contract the virus from someone who is displaying
symptoms.
“Individuals that are not showing
symptoms of COVID-19 disease do not pose a risk,” Drenzek said.
Sen. Jeff Mullis (R-Chickamauga) sponsored a resolution banning lies before the Georgia Senate. (Official Georgia Senate photo)
ATLANTA – Liars got a gut punch from Georgia state senators, who unanimously agreed Monday they are fed up with falsehoods in their chamber and in legislative committees.
Under a resolution by Senate Rules Committee
Chairman Jeff Mullis, members of the public who testify at Georgia Senate
meetings would be bound to tell only the truth or face a temporary ban.
Lobbyists, activists, experts, government
officials and just generally concerned Georgia citizens often weigh in on bills
and issues at hearings held by Senate committees.
These hearings are the most public way
for people opposed or supportive of legislation to air their thoughts before
lawmakers, who must give the green light before a bill can advance further in
the Georgia General Assembly.
The resolution by Mullis, R-Chickamauga,
would make it so that people testifying before the Senate are “most strongly
requested” to tell the truth.
The resolution does not explicitly state
lawmakers themselves also need to tell the truth.
Anyone caught fibbing would be cited for
contempt and barred from giving testimony for the rest of an annual legislative
session. Mullis’ resolution originally banned liars for life, but that severe
punishment was stripped from the final version.
Mullis said Monday the point of his
resolution is to make sure lawmakers have the most accurate information
possible when voting on changes to Georgia law.
He said only factual untruths will be
prohibited. Opinions of all stripes can still range freely.
“Don’t you think it’s important for us to
have the truth when we’re trying to put good laws together so we have the right
information?” Mullis said.
A handful of Democratic senators backed
Mullis’ bill on the Senate floor in a show of bipartisan support for the
truth-telling pledge.
“Hopefully, this will make a change in
what people say to us and make sure it is truthful,” said Sen. Horacena Tate,
D-Atlanta.
ATLANTA – The Georgia Senate passed legislation Monday that would expand free-speech protections for religious and ideological groups, which opponents say could encourage on-campus discrimination.
Senate Bill 318, called the “Forming Open and Robust University Minds Act,” would bar schools from designating so-called “free-speech zones” where student groups can convene outdoors on campus, including for protest events.
Contentiously, the bill would also
prohibit Georgia colleges and universities from denying meeting spaces and
funding for “religious, political or ideological student organizations.”
While not protecting students or groups
that harass other students, the bill would prevent students who do not abide by
a particular group’s belief systems from joining or intentionally disrupting
that group’s activities.
The bill would let groups sue a college
or university for injunctive relief and seek monetary damages of at least
$5,000.
Those provisions aim to keep certain
groups from being diluted and to block Georgia schools from adopting so-called
“all-comer policies,” in which school administrators have greater say in what
activities student organizations can undertake, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen.
William Ligon.
Ligon, R-Brunswick, said his bill aims to
broadly protect free speech on college campuses, including for groups that may
hold beliefs not grounded in fact or reality. Allowing those groups and
ideologies to face debate and challenges to their beliefs is a key part of the
bill, he said.
“I’m not afraid of having more free
speech,” Ligon said. “That’s the great thing about this country and this state,
and we need to encourage that as much as possible.”
An amendment made to the bill Monday
sought to make clear that athletes on college sports teams would still be
subject to team policies on speech and behavior.
The bill passed along party lines by a
32-21 vote. It now heads to the Georgia House of Representatives.
Several Democratic senators objected to
the bill Monday over concerns it could hamstring schools from barring
organizations that promote race, sex and gender discrimination. They worried
the broad speech protections could attract hate-based groups to Georgia college
campuses and risk losing federal funds.
“Our state and public college system has
come way too far to pass a bill that forces taxpayers to subsidize
discrimination,” said Sen. Zahra Karinshak, D-Duluth.
The bill also drew objections from
representatives of the University System of Georgia and the American Civil
Liberties Union in committee hearings ahead of Monday’s vote.
Some opponents questioned whether the
bill is necessary. Colleges and universities can already be held liable in
court for violating free-speech protections under the First Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution, said Brooke Bowen, a senior legal counsel for the University
System.
“We’re committed to making sure that
we’re protecting the First Amendment across all of our campuses,” Bowen said at
a committee hearing late last month. “But we do believe that if we do get it
wrong, there are remedies in federal law for constitutional violations.”
Ligon defended his measure Monday,
arguing that without broader speech protections Georgia schools could silence
certain religious or political organizations on campus, particularly
faith-based groups.
“You effectively silence the voice of
that minority group,” Ligon said. And that’s wrong.”
ATLANTA – Legislation introduced into the state Senate this week is calling for more sunshine when lawmakers draw new congressional and legislative district maps next year based on the 2020 Census.
Democrats say greater transparency in the
redistricting process would help head off any potential attempts at
gerrymandering by the state’s majority Republican leadership.
In Georgia, the majority party in either
chamber of the legislature has the upper hand in drafting and passing district
maps with redrawn borders. Republicans have enjoyed a majority in both the
180-member House and the 56-member Senate since 2005.
The maps are redrawn every 10 years to
reflect new population counts shortly after each census, the latest of which is
set to begin counting next month. Congressional and state legislative districts
are required to be roughly equal under the Georgia Constitution.
Critics of the redistricting process have
long argued it can allow the map drafters to redraw lines in ways that favor
their party, either to consolidate weak districts or flip others held by the
opposing party.
Senate Bill 491 would require state
lawmakers to hold at least two public meetings to present the proposed new
district maps and explain details of how the boundaries were drawn.
Those maps and explanatory information
would also have to be published on the General Assembly’s website before
redistricting committees in the state House and Senate vote on the maps.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Elena Parent,
said at a news conference Friday requiring a more public airing of the maps
before state lawmakers approve them would give Georgia voters a better chance at
bringing pressure to bear on their elected officials if they do not like how
the districts would be revised.
“It’s very important that we have a
meaningful way for citizens all around the state to able to register their
comments and to review the process and the proposed maps,” said Parent,
D-Atlanta.
Her bill is being pushed in the House by Rep. Matthew
Wilson, D-Brookhaven.
Parent said she recently talked to Sen.
Matt Brass, R-Newnan, who chairs the Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting
Committee, about scheduling her bill for a hearing. Lawmakers could still
consider the measure next spring before the redistricting process happens in
summer 2021, she said.
Parent is also sponsoring a resolution
that she filed in last year’s legislative session to create an independent
commission to draft the new maps, rather than lawmakers themselves. That
measure, which would ask voters to approve formal changes to the redistricting
process, has stalled in the Senate.
