ATLANTA – One of Gov. Brian Kemp’s tort reform bills, Senate Bill 68, passed through both the House of Representatives and Senate Friday. Now, it goes to Kemp for his signature.

Moultrie’s members of the Legislature, House Rep. Chas Cannon and Sen. Sam Watson, both had a hand in its passage.

“There was about 15 hours of debate and a few changes in the Senate before it came over to the House. In the House, the bill got another 15-20 hours of very in-depth debate plus an additional 20 or so changes to the bill. I think it was thoroughly vetted,” said Cannon.

“I think we’re all just excited about it. Excited about the equity and stability it’s going to provide in the courtroom,” Watson said.

He also mentioned that one of the intents of the bill was to help bring rising insurance costs down. Kemp cited this as one of the main reasons for his drive for tort reform in Georgia.

Cannon, whose primary job is Colquitt County administrator, said the Colquitt County government’s insurance premiums have doubled over the years. Those additional costs were passed on to residents in the form of a property tax increase.

He said every time the County or even the State was sued for something, they had to send it to their insurance, pay a deductible and try to resolve the case. These were also part of the additional costs passed on to residents.

“We’ve got people in the county who struggle to pay a monthly $25 trash bill and now we’ve got to hit them with a property tax increase,” he said. “So there is somewhat of a tax incentive to peel back some of the more frivolous lawsuits and truly only bring the cases where there is negligence involved.”

Watson was one of the 25 senators that sponsored SB 68. It was introduced early on this legislative session.

Cannon spoke in support of the bill when it went before the House Thursday. “Colleagues, Senate Bill 68 is not just a legal reform, it’s an economic imperative,” he said. “It strikes a necessary balance. Protecting the rights of individuals to seek redress while ensuring that our legal system is not exploited to the detriment of honest enterprise and consumer welfare.”

The bill passed the House 91-82.

After the House sent the revised bill back to the Senate for consideration, Sen. John F. Kennedy, who was the author of the bill, said, “In my 11 years of being a legislator under this Gold Dome, this may be the most misrepresented piece of legislation that I’ve ever seen.”

He spoke in response to the opposition mounted against the bill by the senators that spoke against it.

The bill passed 34-21 on Friday afternoon and will go to the governor’s desk.

The bill’s final summary on the General Assembly website states, “A bill to be entitled an Act to amend Titles 9, 40, and 51 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to civil practice, motor vehicles, and torts, respectively, so as to provide for substantive and comprehensive revision of provisions regarding civil practice, evidentiary matters, damages, and liability in tort actions…”.

“Level the playing field” in Georgia’s courtrooms had been a running theme in Kemp’s drive for tort reform.

At the 2023 Georgia Chamber Congressional Luncheon, he told the audience, “The laws on our books are making it too easy to bring frivolous lawsuits against Georgia business owners, which drive up the price of insurance and stop new, good-paying jobs from ever coming to communities that need them the most.”

Based on Georgia’s judicial record, the American Tort Reform Foundation listed the state as No. 1, for the past two years, as a “Judicial Hellhole.” However, this year, the non-profit organization dropped Georgia’s ranking to No. 4, citing Kemp’s prioritization of legal reform as its reasoning.

Dr. Michael Brown, chief medical officer and pulmonary/critical care physician at Colquitt Regional Medical Center, attended Kemp’s press conference at the Georgia State Capitol, in January.

“Essentially, Georgia Hospital Association asked for physicians and nurses to come and represent and stand at the side of Governor Kemp as he held his press conference regarding litigation reform,” he said. “It was a very powerful press conference. The people there had not seen anything along those lines.”

On the passage of Senate Bill 68, Brown said that he and the Colquitt County Medical Society are delighted in the coordinated efforts at the Capitol to bring about a bill that enhances a fair and reasonable process for malpractice claims.

This bill helps limit “nuclear verdicts” and enables reasonable compensation for appropriate lawsuits,” he also said.

“I do think, in general, that there is a proliferation of lawsuits being filed. The main point of the legislation was to bring some balance back to our legal system, not prevent folks who are harmed or injured out of pure negligence from being able to be made whole,” said Cannon.

For more information about current legislation, visit the House of Representatives’ website at https://www.legis.ga.gov/house and the Senate’s website at https://www.legis.ga.gov/senate.