Coffee, Republicans will push for lawsuit reform

Coffee:
Republicans will push for lawsuit reform
By Patrick B. McGuigan
Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Oklahoma Senate Republicans are determined to push sweeping lawsuit reforms in collaboration with House allies, building a coalition with willing Democrats, Senate co-President Glenn Coffee said in a lengthy recent interview.

While saying he would like to work with Gov. Brad Henry to get a good bill signed into law this year, Sen. Coffee did not mince his words when making criticisms of the governor, Attorney General Drew Edmondson, and the state Supreme Court.

Coffee said the most compelling arguments he can make for reform center on “jobs and health care.”

“Lawsuits and the threat of lawsuits are driving up health care costs for everyone,” Coffee said. “Many doctors practice ‘defensive medicine’—such as ordering unnecessary, costly tests and examinations—in order to defend against potential malpractice lawsuits.”

The Republican leader declared, “Lawsuits are making health care harder to find.”

Coffee pointed to a survey from the Oklahoma Alliance of Physicians for Tort Reform showing lawsuit threats “caused nearly one-fifth of Oklahoma doctors to consider leaving the state, while 60 percent of doctors have stopped performing riskier procedures (like delivering babies). Lawsuits are also playing a role in the growing shortage of critical medical specialties here, such as obstetrics, especially in rural Oklahoma.”

Coffee supports pro-reform doctors, many of them Democrats, who say colleagues are relocating their practice to Texas, where the surge of requests for new medical licenses is so great that Lone Star bureaucrats are having trouble keeping up with the demand.

Finally, he observed, a State Chamber survey of Oklahoma businesses found that 87 percent of businesses believe our legal climate hurts job growth. And, 52 percent say they would consider moving their business out of state because of lawsuit threats.

The Oklahoma City Republican said this year’s GOP reform agenda would be similar to the bill Gov. Brad Henry vetoed last year.

Major provisions, he indicated, will include a cap on non-economic damages, elimination of “joint and several” liability (also known as the “deep pockets” rule), better definitions of “frivolous” lawsuits so that these are easier to dismiss, protections for school teachers and volunteers, protections for gun manufacturers from lawsuits related to the criminal or negligent use of a firearm, protections for restaurants and food producers from lawsuits by people with poor eating habits, and class action reform.

Coffee promotes comity and good relations with Senate Democrats, but is frustrated by the chief executive’s position on lawsuit reform. “In 2007, we sent Gov. Henry lawsuit reform legislation that included 18 of the 28 provisions he proposed as part of his 2004 ‘Texas Plus’ bill. Unfortunately, he flip-flopped and vetoed that bill.” Coffee said he is concerned because “Gov. Henry’s rhetoric following the veto seems to indicate that he will not sign a bill if it includes the major reforms sought by the medical and business communities.”

Pressed to analyze that controversial veto, Sen. Coffee said, “It is the trial lawyers who take him on exotic vacations and fund his campaigns. And it’s the trial lawyers who dumped campaign cash into the campaigns of the governor’s party members in the Senate in the days just before and after most Senate Democrats voted against SB 507. At the end of the day, I believe Brad Henry values his trial lawyer friends a lot more than he values the opinions of doctors and business owners.”

Coffee said, “At the end of the day, if we don’t have broader lawsuit reform, it will be because Brad Henry has chosen not to sign it.”

Coffee expressed frustration at the power of the state trial lawyer lobby. “I am continually amazed at the ability of this group to promote resolve by the governor to avoid any compromise, and to simply kill a bill that had real support and that represented what the governor had previously said he would sign.”

Coffee said legislative Republicans have noted that a majority of the state Supreme Court is “clearly not friendly to our reforms.” As a result, “an issue that some legislators are beginning to look at is the reform of the judiciary itself. There is a growing concern that even when the Legislature is able to enact meaningful reforms related to litigation or workers comp, the courts will strike them down. So, we’re starting to see ideas such as Senate confirmation and term limits for judges and justices being looked at as a means to rein in the judiciary.”

Coffee assessed Attorney General Drew Edmondson’s relatively recent direct involvement in opposition to lawsuit reform: “Drew is obviously relevant. He is the chief law enforcement officer of the state. Why has he chosen to involve himself so directly in a matter that is not central to his office’s work? It's a little puzzling.” But maybe only a little: “I think it’s because he’s too tight with the trial lawyers for reasons going back to the tobacco litigation and other issues.”