Gov. Brian Kemp asked business leaders from across Georgia Tuesday to help him get tort reform, his top priority for the 2025 General Assembly session, across the finish line.
“Every local or regional chamber (of commerce) in this room has a critical role to play this session to make sure we finally get tort reform done,” Kemp told an audience of Georgia business and political leaders during the Eggs and Issues breakfast at the Georgia World Congress Center, an annual event at the start of each legislative session sponsored by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
“I’m asking you to engage earlier and harder than you ever have. Talk to your members, get them involved, and give them the tools necessary to be influential with their House and Senate delegation.”
Tort reform has been a goal of Georgia Republicans and their allies in the business community for decades. But the most significant reform legislation to make it through the General Assembly came 20 years ago in a bill that imposed a $350,000 cap on non-economic damage awards in medical malpractice and product liability lawsuits.
The cap immediately came under fire in the form of lawsuits challenging its constitutionality. The Georgia Supreme Court sided with the plaintiffs and threw out the cap in 2010.
Calls for tort reform have come like clockwork virtually every year since, with Republican lawmakers and conservative policy groups warning that huge jury verdicts from frivolous lawsuits are hurting job creation by forcing companies to close their doors. Legislative Democrats and their allies in the trial lawyers’ lobby have warned tort reform threatens to rob Georgians hurt by medical malpractice or defective products of their day in court.
Lawmakers passed a bill last year aimed at laying the groundwork for significant tort reform in 2025. The measure directed the state insurance department to gather data on legal trends affecting insurance premiums and prepare a report.
“That data has now been gathered and, following multiple roundtable conversations on the impact our current legal environment is having on our economic growth and health-care needs, I will soon be unveiling a robust legislative package that will bring balance to our proceedings and parity with our neighbors,” Kemp said Tuesday.
The governor also announced at Tuesday’s breakfast a plan to pour an additional $780 million into infrastructure improvements on top of the $250 million set aside in this year’s budget. Of the new funds, $530 million would go toward road building, and $250 million would be spent on water and sewer projects.
Kemp will share more details on his spending proposals on Thursday when he delivers his annual State of the State message to a joint session of the Georgia House and Senate.
