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South Carolina’s newly launched Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE SC) organization is entering one of the Palmetto State’s highest-profile legislative battles: the ongoing fight over lawsuit reform.
DOGE SC – founded by Charleston, S.C. businessman Rom Reddy – is endorsing specific changes to South Carolina’s tort laws contained in S. 244, a comprehensive lawsuit reform bill introduced by S.C. Senate majority leader Shane Massey.
According to a statement from DOGE SC, Massey’s bill represents “a critical piece of legislation aimed at protecting citizens, small businesses and family farmers from unjust legal liability.” Accordingly, DOGE SC “fully supports the passage of this bill with no carve-outs, no exceptions, and no loopholes” – and praised Massey, Senate president Thomas Alexander and state senators Wes Climer and Sean Bennett for their advocacy on its behalf.
Reddy also made it abundantly clear his group was prepared to take action against against those lawmakers who wind up on the wrong side of this debate – i.e. those currently doing the bidding of South Carolina’s powerful trial lawyer lobby.
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“DOGE SC and its citizen supporters, who are building a grassroots movement unlike anything this state has seen in years, will be keeping a close eye on who supports this bill and who doesn’t,” Reddy said. “Elected officials who fail to stand with the people on this issue should be prepared to face serious primary challenges in the next cycle – and many will not survive them.”
According to Reddy, “power and money have shifted from the citizen to the government—exactly the opposite of what our Founders intended.”
“DOGE SC will always support legislation and legislators who work to shift it back and re-establish the sovereign citizen whose rights come from God, not government,” he said.
To illustrate the need for the law, Reddy highlighted the hypothetical example of an HVAC small business owner who installed a foreign made air conditioning unit in a local business. The system later failed due to a manufacturing defect, causing the business to lose productivity.
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Over the years power has shifted from the people to the government.
— Rom Reddy (@RomReddySC) March 24, 2025
Our mission is simple – give the money and the power back to the people.
You can join us at https://t.co/dzxsrmOvyh pic.twitter.com/DlBaH665hH
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“Under current law, you could be sued for 100% of the damages, even though your role was limited to a $25,000 install and the equipment failure was not your fault,” Reddy said. “Why? Because you’re an easy target—you live here, you’ve built a valuable business, and lawyers don’t want the hassle of suing the foreign manufacturer.”
Judgments just like this are destroying businesses, spiking insurance premiums and resulting in costs being passed on to consumers, Reddy noted.
Under S. 244, “plaintiffs’ lawyers would still be able to pursue the actual wrongdoers for the rest, but they’d have to do the work, not bankrupt innocent small businesses just because it’s easier,” Reddy said.
South Carolina’s tort climate has been the subject of significant debate ever since a high-profile case linked to the ‘Murdaugh Murders‘ crime and corruption saga exposed inherent problems with the Palmetto State’s current law. Ironically, that case also exposed the corruption of the plaintiffs’ lawyer lobby – which was briefly led by convicted killer Alex Murdaugh.
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RELATED | DOGE SC UNVEILS POLL
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DOGE SC’s statement specifically called out South Carolina’s “unchecked legal overreach” and urged senators to stop “bowing to special interests” propping up that unfair, anti-competitive climate.
Reddy formed DOGE SC with the goal of “eliminating the overreach of administrative agencies — commonly referred to as the ‘fourth branch’ of government — that create, enforce, and adjudicate their own rules, often in violation of constitutional principles.”
Internal and external polling shows tremendous popular support for such an effort.
Reddy’s group should have no shortage of targets as it seeks to hold legislators accountable. As FITSNews reported last week, multiple GOP senators – including Tom Fernandez, Billy Garrett, Mike Gambrell, Stephen Goldfinch, Carlisle Kennedy, Josh Kimbrell, Matt Leber and Luke Rankin – have consistently carried water for the trial lawyer lobby via their votes, procedural maneuvering and floor rhetoric.
Despite the obstructionist efforts of these so-called “Republicans,” Massey and his allies have thus far managed to preserve a relatively robust reform bill. Their odds of passing a muscular measure should increase exponentially this week when two senators who support meaningful changes to the law – Harvey Peeler and Allen Blackmon – return to the chamber after excused absences last week.
Assuming a robust bill clears the Senate, it would then have to be taken up by the S.C. House of Representatives – which boasts of its GOP “supermajority” but is actually led by left-of-center trial lawyers, including powerful speaker Murrell Smith. As we previously reported, Smith is viewed as the “firewall” for the plaintiffs’ lawyer lobby in its efforts to kill this legislation.
Count on FITSNews to keep our audience up to speed on the very latest related to the battle for lawsuit reform in South Carolina… and on DOGE SC’s broader mission.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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