MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - Wisconsin is one step closer to making it harder for people to win liability lawsuits against companies and doctors.
The State Senate voted 19 to 14 Tuesday in favor of Governor Scott Walker’s tort reform. All of Walker’s Republicans voted yes, and all Democrats voted no.
The Assembly will take up the measure Thursday.
It’s the first major bill to be passed as part of the special session on boosting the economy. Democrats spent 3 hours arguing that liability reform would not create a single job.
Stevens Point Democrat Julie Lassa said the proposed new limits on expert testimony would make it harder for prosecutors to put criminals away, thus making Wisconsin “softer on crime.”
But James Buchen of the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce group says the current liability laws create risks for companies that exist nowhere else in the nation.
The issue has been a thorn in the GOP’s side for years – especially after the State Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that a Milwaukee boy could sue the entire lead-based paint industry because his family didn’t know which company made the paint that got him sick at home.
Among other things, the reform package forces people to identify the companies which allegedly did them wrong. It also limits punitive damages to $200,000 or twice the amount of actual damages, whichever is greater.
But senators agreed not to apply the limits to drunk drivers, after critics said the original measure would go easier on them. The Assembly Judiciary Committee endorsed the same change earlier Tuesday.
