Another Go-Round on Tort Reform in Oklahoma

Oklahoma lawmakers have forged a compromise on a long sought comprehensive lawsuit reform package, despite the sniping of Democratic and Republican leaders in the Senate.

Oklahoma Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee and House Speaker Chris Benge announced May 11 that a compromise has been reached on a framework for legislation on a wide array of issues related to tort reform. Coffee and Benge and their representatives negotiated with trial bar and business interests for weeks, according to Senate announcements. The agreement is said to be multi-faceted and includes components of reform aimed at improving health care access, as well as protecting the health and vitality of small business in the state.

Among the many areas targeted in the 2009 Oklahoma Lawsuit Reform Agreement are class action litigation, appeal bond caps, joint and several liability, and caps on non-economic damages.

The Oklahoma Legislature — led primarily by Republican members — has been trying to pass lawsuit reform for many years but efforts have often been contentious. Legislation making it to Democratic Gov. Brad Henry’s desk has routinely been vetoed and measures proposed by the governor rejected by Republican lawmakers.

In the 2008 session, Henry vetoed a bill that would have made it harder to file professional malpractice lawsuits and House Democrats fended off an attempt by the GOP to override the veto. Similarly, in 2007 Henry vetoed a tort reform bill, objecting to, among other things, a $300,000 cap on non-economic damages lawsuits and what he said were unintended consequences of provisions on class action and joint and several liability. In both cases, Henry said the measures contained language that was unconstitutional.

Although Republicans, Democrats, attorneys and business interests have seemed to come together to construct legal reform legislation that is tolerable to the various stakeholders, the political posturing goes on.

Senate Democratic Leader Charlie Laster said the new agreement “looks very similar to the compromise bill from 2007 crafted by Governor Henry,” adding that Democrats “are pleased negotiators were able to take the crux of the 2007 proposal to include in the provisions of this agreement.”

Senate President Pro Tem Glenn Coffee would have none of that. He replied that the “Democrats have been in control of the Oklahoma Senate for 101 years. … If they had been truly interested in passing any reform … they could have passed it without Republican support. …

“If Democrats had been genuinely committed to passing this level of meaningful lawsuit reform in 2007 or any other year, we Republicans would have been in line to sign up as co-authors of the bill.”

It will be interesting to see what happens to this legislation if and when it makes its way to the governor’s desk. Until then, the sniping goes on.