A comprehensive civil justice reform bill was passed by the Missouri House of Representatives last month. House Bill 393 contains numerous provisions designed to lower tort costs to employers and insurers.
These include venue reform, that is, limiting the current practice of moving litigation to unrelated, plaintiff-friendly venues in an effort to secure unfair verdicts by requiring cases to be filed in the county where the alleged injury occurred.
The bill would also eliminate a provision in Missouri law that allows defendants who are as little as 1 percent liable for an injury to be held liable for the entire judgment, also known as joint-and-several liability.
HB 393 also caps punitive damages at $250,000 or three times the amount of the actual damages awarded, whichever is greater. The bill also caps damages for pain and suffering at $250,000 for medical malpractice, with no inflationary allowance. The current cap is $350,000, but with an inflationary allowance, the cap has grown to $565,000.
The bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary and Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, where it was voted out on a party-line basis.
Topics Oklahoma
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