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GOP May Take Another Crack at Provision of New Tort Law
A little-debated portion of this year's landmark tort law, one that encourages parties to settle their cases or risk paying the other side's attorney fees, is likely to be rewritten in the 2006 General Assembly.The law's passage was a major victory for the new Republican majority and doctors' groups. The law capped pain and suffering damages in medical-malpractice suits at $350,000 and tossed out joint and several liability, meaning juries will apportion blame so that no defendant has to pay for another's mistake. Republican leaders said they will consider changes in a part of the law dealing with what is called an "offer of judgment." The provision forces one side to pay the other side's attorney fees if the first side rejects a settlement offer but at trial does not do much better than if it had accepted the offer. University of Georgia law professor Thomas A. Eaton called the sections at issue, O.C.G.A. ß 9-11-68 (b) and (d), "a drafting nightmare."Some read the law as requiring plaintiffs, for example, to win at trial at least 125 percent of the settlement offer to avoid paying the defendant's legal fees. But Eaton said the law is unclear about how to calculate whether a jury's financial award is low enough to force one side to pay the other's fees. Republican leaders in the House and Senate almost guaranteed that the offer-of-judgment clause would be tweaked next year."It's too confusing as it's written now," said Rep. Wendell Willard, R-Atlanta, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.
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