Weekly Legislative Update
March 13, 2008

2008 legislature adjourns sine die!

LRC and cohesive team of supporters thwart attempts to expand liability!

Wrongful death bill dies; taxpayers win

One of this session’s sweetest victories was the defeat of HB 1873, an unnecessary and costly expansion of liability under the state’s wrongful death statutes.

The battle to defeat HB 1873 went down to the wire, with the 2008 legislature adjourning this evening without passing this onerous bill. Local and state government budgets, and the taxpayers who support them, would have been the most burdened by the fiscal impact of this measure. The proposal also would have undermined the med-mal liability compromise of two years ago.

An LRC-commissioned study on HB 1873 as passed by the House revealed the measure would have increased the frequency of cases against state government by a whopping 80 percent. Increased costs to state government would have been nearly $19 million per biennium due to this massive increase in claims frequency.  And this doesn’t even take into account the increases in payout amounts.  Local governments could have expected similar fiscal impacts. Go to www.walrc.org for more information.

The LRC sincerely appreciates the efforts of its partners in the fight against HB 1873: 

·         Association of Washington Cities

·         Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna

·         Washington Defense Trial Lawyers

Liability expansion bills: the 2008 post-mortem

In January, plaintiff lawyers hit the State Capitol pushing an aggressive agenda of more than 30 bills to expand liability. Sixty days later, and after much hard combat, the LRC and its allies killed ALL 30 of the bills.

Here’s a run down of some of the bills that died this session:

·         HB 2142—allowing unlimited punitive damages for workplace bullying. 

·         HB 2602—creating a new cause of action against employers.

·         HB 2945—creating a cause of action for the death of a companion animal.

·         SB 6382—Allowing a 500 percent increase in damages available under Consumer Protection Act. 

·         HB 1873/SB 6696—Expanding the wrongful death statutes.

·         SB 6840—Expanding Consumer Protection Act.

·         SB 6385—Expanding residential construction liability.

·         SB 6614—Providing unlimited punitive damages for any civil action.

Congratulations to all LRC members on the great team effort that defeated the plaintiff lawyers’ 2008 agenda.