Missouri GOP Aims to Limit Liability Lawsuits

February 27, 2017 | Legal News

GOP lawmakers push limits with help of new republican governor

Newly elected Republican Missouri Governor Eric Greiten has helped support GOP lawmakers in pushing a series of bills that will restrict limited liability lawsuits.  This push has both been praised and criticized.  It has been viewed as pro business but also as a hindrance on access to the courts for the public.

This is an example of an attempt at tort reform, which has been pushed for quite a while in the state of Missouri as well as nationally.  A tort is a legal term for a wrongful act or an infringement of a right (other than under contract) leading to civil legal liability.

This reform is supposed to make things more fair for businesses, so that they don’t have to constantly worry about lawsuits by consumers and also internal cases like workers’ compensation.  Reporters were told by Republican Senate President Ron Richard that the goal in the tort reforms is to make sure that “businesses can do what they do, which is hire and grow without having the undue burden of lawsuits.”

So what exactly is it that is being proposed?

These tort reforms involve dozens of bills that will affect many different things.  Some of these proposals would:

“-Add legal steps for people suing over asbestos exposure.

-Make it harder for employees to sue for discrimination in the workplace.

-Restrict injured or defrauded people from joining together in lawsuits against companies and clamp down on class-action lawsuits or workers’ compensation claims.

-Change the requirements used to determine whether a witness is an “expert” for non-jury civil cases.

-Only allow juries to see the out-of-pocket amount paid, not the price before insurance, for medical expenses in personal injury cases.”

Read more about tort reform and the details about the bills being pushed here.