Litigation

More governor-elects embracing tort reform

By Carter Wood

Governor-elect Rick Scott of Florida, a former health care executive, spoke Thursday, Nov. 18, to the influential business group, The Florida Council Of 100. From his prepared remarks:

We also need serious tort reform, and a 35% reduction in workman's compensation costs.

The US Chamber of Commerce survey rates Florida worse than 41 other states for our state liability system. Florida has been called a judicial hellhole.

If the plaintiffs' bar is allowed to roam at will -treating businesses just as easy targets with deep pockets, businesses close or move.

If state government workers see their job as policing mindless regulations that restrict and obstruct business activity, businesses close or move.

To become the leader in job creation, the state of Florida has to align its policies with the pre-requisites for growth.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune draws on Scott's speech to columnize, "Trial lawyer foes have reins in Florida."

Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) lauded "loser pays" in a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal sponsored "Journal Editorial Report" on FoxNews. (Transcript) And businessman Bill Haslam's pending governorship in Tennessee also improves political prospects for tort reform, The Knoxville News-Sentinel reports.

Earlier, "Governors and tort reform: How about the English Rule?"

Full post as published by Point of Law on November 21, 2010 (boomark / email).