Indiana’s trucking industry has joined manufacturers and the Chamber of Commerce to form a new tort-reform group aimed at passing more laws like last year’s regulations on the litigation finance industry.
The Indiana Alliance for Legal Reform is headed by Stephen M. Wolff and has hired David C. Long, former President Pro Tempore of the Indiana Senate, to run government and media relations. Directors include the heads of the Indiana Motor Truck Association, the Indiana Chamber and the Indiana Manufacturers Association.
Indiana doesn’t rank among the American Tort Reform Association’s list of “Judicial Hellholes,” but ATRA estimates the state’s excessive tort expenses cost residents $1,205 a year.
“Indiana has become a world-class location for businesses of all sizes to grow and prosper,” Long said. “The key to this success has been the determined and focused effort of Hoosier business and political leaders to ensure that a reasonable, business-friendly environment continues to exist within the state.
“This proposed legislation is an important addition to that ongoing effort and will ensure that Indiana continues to be a national leader in economic growth and opportunity.”
The Indiana Alliance’s targets will include controlling jury awards of non-economic damages such as pain and suffering, and informing consumers about the costs of the civil legal system.
Indiana passed transparency regulations for Civil Proceeding Advance Payments (CPAP) in 2019, which it defined as consumer loans for costs other than legal fees that are secured by the outcome of a lawsuit. Legislators tightened the rules last year with House Bill 1160, which prohibits CPAP lenders from paying commissions or referral fees to lawyers or medical providers or refer plaintiffs to specific attorneys, physical therapists or chiropractors.
The law also requires disclosure of commercial litigation financing and prohibits some foreign investment in Indiana lawsuits.
The laws are intended to prevent the type of abuses documented in New York, where plaintiff lawyers recruit poor workers, many of them undocumented immigrants, to file lawsuits financed by lenders who charge interest rates that far exceed state usury limits. Insurance companies say the scheme inflates premiums by flooding the system with questionable claims bolstered by medical evidence obtained by inducing plaintiffs to undergo unnecessary treatment.
Indiana also last year ended the state’s longstanding ban on allowing juries to hear evidence plaintiffs weren’t seat belts in car accident cases, a high priority for tort reformers in other states including Georgia.
Georgia was among the states this year that passed civil-justice measures designed to protect businesses and consumers from plaintiff lawyers and lenders. South Carolina reworked its laws regarding how defendants split the check on jury verdicts, though lawmakers left an exception for asbestos lawyers.
Oklahoma passed a bill that puts limits on non-economic damages, which helps businesses avoid blockbuster verdicts and doesn’t apply to actual damages sustained by plaintiffs. A new law also provides stronger requirements for expert testimony, with proponents hoping it keeps “junk science” out of court.
And though New York’s legislature passed bills that critics said would encourage more lawsuits, Gov. Kathy Hochul recently vetoed them and instead signed a measure for consumer protection in the lawsuit-lending industry.
