Tort Reform Distraction: A Winning Strategy?

by DIANE HARDY

The battle for lawsuit (tort) reform continues to rage in South Carolina. As it rages, plaintiffs’ attorneys are providing a smart, albeit unfair, distraction — look over there! The problem is those greedy insurance carriers raking in record profits!

This, of course, has nothing to do with whether South Carolina should adopt proportional liability so businesses can be protected from unfair – and sometimes predatory – lawsuits, but I must admit conflating the two things is brilliant! I just pray the public can see through it all and will demand that tort reform pass this legislative session.  

I believe the main reason you are seeing the pushback on S. 244 (The Justice Act) is because plaintiffs’ attorneys greatly benefit from the status quo (our unfair joint and several liability laws). They win when a business is held financially liable for something they were not really responsible for – as happened in Smith v. Tiffany (a case that did not involve alcohol) but resulted in an innocent trucking company being held liable for an accident they were not physically involved in.

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Then there’s Beach v. Parker, in which convenience store chain Parker’s Kitchen paid a $15 million settlement tied to a Murdaugh-related boating accident. Parker’s Kitchen followed the law and was not cited by the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), having checked the ID of the purchaser. Additionally, Parker’s was the first (but not the last) place where youths purchased alcohol that day – however, without proportional liability laws in our state, Parker’s thought it safer to settle.

As it stands now, bars and restaurants are probably at the greatest risk if there is an accident because every venue a patron visited that day can wind up on the hook – even if only one (or none) of them was actually responsible for the outcome.

No wonder why it is so difficult to find any company that will write liquor liability insurance in South Carolina. 

Our current system works beautifully if you are a plaintiffs’ attorney; just the threat of a business being tangentially linked to a tragic accident causes insurance companies to buckle and settle claims, often without ever going to trial. These settlements cause the venue’s insurance premiums to skyrocket, which filters down as rising prices on their menus for all of us.

So, it’s not at all surprising that plaintiffs’ attorneys do not want to adopt what many other states already have: proportional liability, which would divide financial responsibility based on the degree of fault of each party involved. 

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RELATED | HIGH NOON FOR TORT REFORM IN SOUTH CAROLINA

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There’s a lot of paid propaganda floating around our state right now on this issue, with a great deal of money being spent to influence public opinion. As the volunteer executive director for the Mom and Pop Alliance of SC I can assure you money is not a factor for me personally – or for our organization. We speak solely for the interests of South Carolina’s hard working family businesses – which is why we have endorsed S. 244 and urge the S.C. Senate to pass it. 

I also think it’s important to note, I personally do not have an issue with plaintiffs’ attorneys holding a defendant responsible for their negligence. As a former nurse anesthetist, I testified on a plaintiff’s behalf in a case (Durham v. Vinson) where my testimony was critical to the jury awarding a huge payout to the plaintiff and, consequently, her attorneys.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys have an important role to play in our legal system in pursuing justice for victims and holding bad actors accountable. But what we have right now in South Carolina is perversion of justice, especially for small businesses, and that is why it is critical that the S.C. Senate and House pass tort reform this year!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Diane Hardy is a former nurse anesthetist turned entrepreneur, who opened a franchise at Verdae in Greenville over seven years ago. She is executive director of the Mom and Pop Alliance of SC, which she founded during Covid upon discovering South Carolina’s almost 400,000 small businesses had little representation in our State House. The Alliance provides education, communication, and advocacy for SC’s family-owned businesses. Her passion for South Carolina’s small business is strong, and as such she donates her time to the organization, accepting no salary or government funding.  Her love for our state isn’t new.  Before launching the Mom and Pop Alliance she was the founder and host of The Palmetto Panel (2014-2019), an annual statewide conference highlighting issues impacting South Carolina.  Diane has a bachelor’s degree in nursing and psychology from Michigan State as well as a master’s degree from MUSC.

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