TORPY: Gov. Kemp employs the ‘tort reform’ squeeze on his own

Cody Hall, a Kemp confidant, let it be known that the governor is ready to use his considerable war chest to primary any Republican who has the temerity to go against his will.

This might sound odd from a pol who was primaried last time out by President Donald Trump’s guy, the ever-grim David Perdue. Trump still was mad at Kemp for not going along with his 2020 election swindle. But I suppose Kemp, who won handily, now believes that getting primaried builds character.

Apparently, his threat worked, as every Republican except Colton Moore, the Senate’s human No-vote machine, supported the legislation.

The bill, now in the state House, would “level the playing field” in courthouses, supporters say. They say plaintiffs’ lawyers are putting their faces on highway billboards and bombarding businesses with frivolous lawsuits.

This well-organized, and well-funded, campaign — known as the Lobbyist Full Employment Act — has been actively waged for more than a year. Supporters claim that “nuclear verdicts,” as in really big ones, are crippling businesses by driving up the price of insurance.

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC

In fact, we’re now being told that Georgia is a “judicial hellhole,” which is disconcerting to those of us used to hearing politicians, especially Kemp, crowing that Georgia is the No. 1 place to do business. The governor is said to still be smarting from insurance premium hikes from his time as a construction firm boss.

Democrats and many lawyers argue the bill is a bald-faced giveaway to the insurance industry, a multiillion-dollar conglomerate that excels at funding lobbyists and politicians. In addition, they say this will hurt the Little Guy’s chance at being reimbursed when injured by a company cutting corners.

Granted, rising insurance rates annoy those of all political convictions. But the cause of those increases could keep high school debate teams arguing forever, whether they be more frequent natural disasters, naïve juries or greedy insurance moguls who excel at hiding profits.

In fact, adopting the so-called “tort reform” doesn’t ensure that rates will drop. It could affect liability insurance for some businesses, but the rest of the picture still remains clouded.

In recent weeks, the tort reform squad brought forth testimony from all sorts of business owners, whether they be in the construction field, trucking industry or moms-and-pops just trying to make it in this harsh world.

The bill would do several things, including stop the courtroom tactic of “anchoring,” which means bringing up possible financial damages early in a trial. The bill would make it harder to sue businesses for criminal acts occurring on their property, make it easier to dismiss cases and make trials bifurcated, meaning damages would be argued in a separate proceeding but with the same jury.

The legislation does not have a cap on jury awards, as the state Supreme Court ruled such a measure unconstitutional in 2010.

The bill’s proponents like to mention our neighbors in Florida for having successfully passed similar legislation. Florida, which Mother Nature has tried to destroy for the past decade, had seen massive insurance losses, wildly rising rates and companies pulling out. But, proponents say, legislation backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis turned all that around and insurers now are flocking back to the Sunshine State.

But let me add an asterisk here: An enterprising reporter writing for the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times unearthed a government report on the insurance industry and this week wrote a story headlined, “Secret study found Florida insurers sent billions to affiliates while crying poor.”

“The report, the most in-depth dive into the byzantine finances of Florida’s homeowners insurance market, reveals that as the insurance market was ailing and companies were losing money, executives distributed $680 million in dividends to shareholders while diverting billions more to affiliate companies,” the reporter wrote.

Florida’s legislators never saw that report while debating tort reform, but listened to insurance execs complain about how broke they were. Insurance companies can appear to be losing money on claim payouts while still raking it in on the stock market.

The late Tommy Malone, a plaintiff’s lawyer who grew rich from winning over juries, once got philosophic when explaining that verdicts should not solely be based on actuarial tables.

“How much is a sunrise worth?” he asked.

I called Adam Malone, who followed in his father’s footsteps. It was his case that overturned the state’s 2005 law that capped “pain and suffering” awards at $350,000.

He once told me that “tort reform is socialized justice” and “takes away citizens’ voice.”

This week, he said, “The insurance industry is not hurting. Tort reform and insurance premiums have no correlation between each other.”

But for the next few weeks, we sure will hear that they do.