A Kansas House committee has endorsed legislation allowing higher monetary damages in personal injury lawsuits while revising the rules of evidence in such cases.
The March 18 voice vote by the Commerce, Labor and Economic Committee sent the Senate-passed measure to the full House for debate.
It would increase the state’s $250,000 limit on non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $300,000 in July and to $350,000 by July 2022.
The change is a response to a 2012 Kansas Supreme Court ruling in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The court upheld the current limit but said it was troubled that it hadn’t been adjusted for inflation since 1988.
The bill also could narrow the use of expert testimony, and allow juries to be told that a plaintiff has received an insurance settlement.
Lawyers’ groups are fighting the changes in evidence rules, which they say are a bad trade-off for higher limits on some damages in personal injury lawsuits.
One change in evidence rules would give judges discretion to limit testimony from purported experts, a move that backers said would prevent juries from considering “junk” science in lawsuits. Both the Kansas Bar Association and the Kansas Association for Justice, the trial lawyers’ group, predicted the change would lead to longer and costlier litigation.
The two groups consider the other change an even bigger shift in policy. It would reverse a policy of not having juries hear whether alleged injury victims already have losses covered by insurance or other sources.
Supporters of the change say that it would still leave it to juries to decide whether to adjust damages to reflect such compensation.
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