You may recall that last fall the Arkansas Supreme Court struck down a tort reform ballot initiative. It's back. The Arkansas Times reports:
A proposed amendment to the Arkansas
Constitution filed last week in the Senate seeks to limit the amounts
that can be awarded to claimants in civil actions, such as medical
malpractice lawsuits. If Senate Joint Resolution 8 is approved by the
General Assembly — and with a long list of co-sponsors, it seems likely
to pass — it would appear before voters on the 2018 ballot. Sen. Missy
Irvin (R-Mountain View) is the lead sponsor.
Like the so-called "tort reform" measure
on the 2016 ballot (which was disqualified by the state Supreme Court
not long before the election), SJR 8 would place a cap of $250,000 on
noneconomic damages, meaning compensation for hard-to-quantify personal
losses such as pain and suffering. The proposed amendment also places a
cap on punitive damages, though that ceiling is more flexible. But SJR 8
also would give the legislature control over the rules of pleading,
practice and procedure in the judicial branch, thus taking power away
from Arkansas courts and giving it to the General Assembly.
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