Sanford signs tort reform bill in Greenville

Gov. Mark Sanford greets House Speaker David Wilkins at signing ceremonies for the tort reform law at the Greenville Chamber of Commerce. Tanya Ackerman/Staff e-mail this story Related Online extra • Poll: Do you support the changes in tort rules? Related Web site • Sanford on tort reform in his Contract for Change • Read the tort reform legislation Click on the help icons for information on these links and any programs needed to open them.

State Rep. Karl Allen, D-Greenville, a lawyer, was among those standing with Sanford, but Allen made it clear in an interview that he had run interference against the bill's onrushing tide. "It's certainly a win for the business community," Allen said.

"I don't think individuals lost in terms of their freedom to sue, but the little person was harmed in several ways," Allen said. "But we mitigated that harm so the bite was not as bad."

The bill cracks down on frivolous litigation, limits where suits can be filed, changes the law on who pays what share of damages, and shortens the period to eight years from 15 years in which suits can be filed over poor construction.

Greenville trial lawyer Thomas Creech Jr. said the new law "is anti-consumer legislation" that will encourage businesses to go to trial rather than negotiate settlements.

But it united the state's business community and won the backing of most of the Legislature's GOP majority, helping bring Republican Sanford a rare victory on one of the signature issues of his 2002 election campaign.

Calling it a team effort, House Speaker David Wilkins, R-Greenville, told the packed Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce meeting room, "I always said the South Carolina House makes it our business to be pro-business and with the signing of this important legislation, that saying is even truer today."

Sanford said, "South Carolina has too often seen jobs and investment go elsewhere as a result of its unfriendly tort system," declaring that the "state's business climate just got a lot friendlier. At the end of the day, that means jobs and investment are staying here or coming here that otherwise would have gone someplace else."

Limits on joint and several liability — a practice that requires the wealthiest defendants to pay a lawsuit's full damages even if their liability was only slight — will have the most egregious impact on the public, Creech said.

"It will definitely affect how working folks can collect full damages," he said.

"Often, businesses will seek out judgment-proof businesses to assist them and it's those judgment-proof guys that will get all the blame."

Doug Dent, a Greenville trial lawyer and Democratic activist, said the new law puts special interests before the public interest.

"In time, I think you'll find people will be very unhappy with this legislation," Dent said. "Can't imagine any trial lawyer, of any salt, including David Wilkins being a supporter of it." But he added that the crackdown on frivolous suits "has merit."

Separate legislation dealing with changes in medical malpractice lawsuits — including caps on jury awards — is pending.

Wilkins said the House will agree next week to Senate amendments and that bill will be "signed into law very soon."

But Wilkins said the bill signed Monday will have some bearing on health professions by limiting venue-shopping for plaintiff-friendly counties and sanctions on frivolous lawsuits.

Its limits on joint and several liability would have a lesser impact on physicians and hospitals, he said.

Upstate legislators did much of the heavy lifting in winning the bill's enactment, including Wilkins and Sens. Larry Martin, R-Pickens, and Harry Cato, R-Travelers Rest. They received three of the four pens Sanford used to sign the bill, the other going to Michael Fields, state director of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.

Fields said the new law "is not about denying access to the courthouse, it's about restoring confidence in the courts."

Mack Whittle, chairman of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and a leading proponent of the bill, said the public will benefit because through new and better jobs.

"In order for South Carolina to be competitive, we have to have tort reform that is as good or better than our neighboring states," said Whittle, chairman and CEO of Greenville-based South Financial Group.

Because South Carolina has lacked that element, the state has "lost jobs and we've lost new industry moving in. This (law) gives us parity with those other states," he said.

Individuals remain adequately protected, but lawsuits had gotten out of hand, skewed toward plaintiffs and "this state had a black eye as to business and industry looking at South Carolina," Whittle said.

Sanford cited Wilkins, Realtors, homebuilders, the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce and an assortment of other business organizations for a team effort in supporting "a very significant step forward."

He said the law would move the state away from its rating by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute of Legal Reform for having the 11th worst judicial climate.

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Staff writer Dan Hoover covers politics and can be reached at 298-4883.