Guest Author
As with most issues, there is another side to legislation pertaining to punitive damages that is now being considered by the Florida Legislature.
A Tampa Bay Times editorial, “Don’t change law to limit damages for Big Tobacco,” published February 26, suggests that this bill is a bailout, and one that changes the rules long after the affected cases began.
As president of one of Florida’s leading business organizations, I want to be sure the newspaper’s readers hear the other side of the issue.
Almost 16 years ago Florida’s Legislature passed one of the best punitive damages laws in the country. This 1999 law provided reasonable limits on the amount of punitive damages that could be awarded in a lawsuit, generally three or four times the amount of compensatory damages. The law also established that punitive damages should not be awarded over and over for the same conduct. This very measured law, which I was involved in passing when I was in the Legislature, has no impact on compensatory damages.
The legislation now being considered – SB 978/HB 1067 – would simply ensure that 16 years later this law will apply to every case in Florida. One would have thought that after all this time the law would apply to every lawsuit still before our courts, but that is not the case.
There are currently a few thousand cases – some even filed after the 1999 law went into effect – that somehow aren’t governed by this 1999 law. It only seems logical that this punitive damages law should apply to these cases.
The editorial hints that the law will eliminate these cases, but that is just not true. These cases will continue, with compensatory damages unaffected by this bill, and possibly also punitive damages as permitted by the very same punitive damages statute that applies to every other business and individual in all other cases pending in our courts.
So who would be opposed to this common-sense reform? The answer is simple, trial lawyers. Why? The answer is also simple: the hundreds of millions of dollars in contingency fees they collect in litigation, including in cases with unlimited punitive damages, often awarded over and over again for the same conduct.
With no real argument, the editorial states that these defendants are mainly tobacco companies, and there can never be enough punishment for them. However, let’s not forget that these companies settled litigation with Florida in 1997, and as part of that settlement the state released claims for punitive damages. In return, our state has received over $7.5 billion in payments since then, and will receive hundreds of millions more every year. Those monies are spent by the Legislature to benefit all of Florida’s citizens.
So the picture is not quite the one the Times paints in its editorial. As the leader of a business organization that worries about the effect of our litigation climate on business growth, I firmly believe that the time is now to make sure the same set of laws apply to everyone. This is good for businesses and the people of Florida. That is what these bills would achieve, and they deserve our support and the support of the Legislature.
Tom Feeney is president of Associated Industries of Florida. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
