Supporters of a proposed constitutional amendment to restrict the size of jury verdicts against medical care providers cleared a hurdle Wednesday in their effort to get the proposal on the November ballot.
On Wednesday, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge approved the name and title of a proposed amendment that would limit trial attorneys to one-third of any damages won in suits against care providers.
It also would require the General Assembly to enact legislation that would set a minimum limit of $250,000 in “non-economic” damages, such as pain and suffering, that could be awarded in a suit.
Originally named the “Lawsuit Reform Amendment of 2016,” Rutledge wrote in her opinion that the name was too “partisan” and replaced it with “An Amendment to Limit Attorney Contingency Fees and Non-Economic Damages in Medical Lawsuits.”
To get a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot, supporters will have to get nearly 82,000 signatures on petitions across the state.
On Wednesday, one of the backers of the measure, Chase Dugger, sent out an announcement saying that the measure, if approved by voters, would put the state in league with other states with similar restrictions and would lower health care costs in Arkansas.
“[Passage] will ensure that medical professionals are able to focus on patient care at a lower cost to the patient and without having to worry about the unreasonable threat of nearly limitless liability for the work they do everyday,” Dugger wrote. “It will head off conflicts of interest between attorneys and clients by ensuring that the lion’s share of any medical-injury recovery will go to injured parties, not to pay legal bills.”
Rutledge had already approved the language of an earlier version by the same sponsors, Dugger and Dan Greenberg. The older version did not include limits on attorneys’ contingency fees. Dugger is a political consultant. Greenberg is president of a group called Advance Arkansas Institute. He also is the son of former editorial page editor Paul Greenberg of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Efforts to curb the costs to medical care providers from lawsuits, commonly called tort reform measures, are not new to Arkansas.
In 2003, lawmakers passed a law limiting the amount of some types of damages that could be awarded in a civil suit against health care providers.
In 2011, the Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously struck down the law as unconstitutional.