Weekly Legislative Update
March 27, 2009

Big victory for the LRC
Protective orders bill dead

Thanks to the good work of the LRC and its members, yesterday the bill to limit the use of protective orders, SB 5886, died in the House Judiciary Committee without having been brought up for a vote.  SB 5886 would have hampered the free exchange of information in the discovery phase of a lawsuit.   Furthermore, it would have created the likelihood that trade secrets and other confidential information would have been made available to the public.  The bill was a priority for the trial lawyers because it would have opened the flood gates to even more litigation.  The defeat of SB 5886 is a tremendous victory for the LRC. 

On another front … this week House Judiciary committee passed SB 5531, a bill to expand the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) but first amended it to more closely mirror the House version, HB 1683.  Now, both measures set the treble damages limit at $25,000 (down from the original proposal of $50,000) and neither version includes the language which provided that all actions brought by the Attorney General are presumed to involve an act or practice injurious to the public harm, which would have created a new level of liability.  This is tremendous progress.  Still, the bills contain language to make it significantly easier to bring a CPA claim.  Specifically, the bills eliminate the current requirement that a CPA lawsuit serve the public interest.  Senate Bill 5531 is in the House Rules Committee, while HB 1683 is still in the Senate policy committee. 

With 75 days into the session, the LRC and its members have managed to defeat nearly 20 legislative initiatives of the trial lawyers.  The remaining 30 days are critical as the LRC continues to address the CPA bills and the remaining construction liability bill, HB 1393. 

Monday is the next major cut-off which requires that all bills not related to the budget be out of their policy committees.  

For a complete list of the active liability bills, see the LRC’s bill tracker.  

LRC joins fight to defeat
anti-employee/employer bill

Joining with others in the employer community, the LRC has taken a position to oppose bill related to workers’ compensation, HB 1402, which prohibits informal communication between employers and claimants’ medical providers on administrative appeal.  It changes 100 years of theory and practice in workers’ compensation law, overturns favorable Supreme Court precedent (Holbrook v. Weyerhaeuser, 1992), results in a more formal and litigious claims resolution process, and tilts the preparation and presentation of cases heavily in the trial lawyers’ favor.  The bill was heard in the Senate Labor and Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee on March 24 but as of today’s Update, has not been scheduled for executive session.