BY BOBBY HARRISON
Daily Journal Jackson Bureau
JACKSON - In 1993, the two sides of the debate on whether the state's civil justice system needed to be changed sat down in a room over several days and hashed out a compromise that was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Kirk Fordice
"It was a sour pill to swallow, but some of our members worked on the legislation," said Shane Langston of Jackson, former president of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association.
Now less than a decade later there is another intense debate ongoing on whether changes need to be made in Mississippi's civil justice system. Of another possible compromise, Langston said, "I don't think the trial lawyers will draw a line in the sand and say we don't want any changes."
But there are areas where the trial attorneys have essentially drawn a line in the sand, such as capping punitive and non-economic damages.
Blake Wilson, president of the Mississippi Economic Council, refers to caps as "the Holy Grail issue of the plaintiff's bar."
But Wilson also is hopeful that discussions such as those in 1993 and a special joint legislative committee working on the issue can create some common ground.
Focus on committee
It's the joint legislative committee, created in May by House Speaker Tim Ford, D-Baldwyn, and Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, the presiding officer of the Senate, where most of the attention is focused.
Various members of the 26-member special committee have predicted it will make recommendations to address some of the concerns business groups, doctors and others have about the civil justice system. Business groups claim the number of lawsuits and large jury verdicts are hurting Mississippi's economic climate. Doctors say lawsuits against them are causing medical malpractice insurance rates to soar, forcing physicians to retire, curtail their practices or leave the state.
Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, a member of the special committee, said he believes those concerns - especially medical concerns - will be addressed.
"No group will get everything it wants - not the trial attorneys, not the business groups, not the doctors," Flaggs said. "We are going to do what is best for the people of the state."
Of course, whatever the committee decides still will have to be approved by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor. Flaggs and others believe there is momentum to pass something out of the Legislature. Whether it makes people in favor of changing the civil justice system happy is another story.
"I always support just enough tort reform to make all the trial attorneys mad at me, but not enough to do me any good with the other side," quipped Sen. Hob Byran, D-Amory.
Bryan said it's the duty of the Legislature to sort through the rhetoric to determine what needs to be done.
That's the job the special committee is supposed to be doing. The committee, co-chaired by Sen. Bennie Turner, D-West Point, and Rep. Percy Watson, D-Hattiesburg, has set Aug. 16 as the date for the committee to vote on a final report.
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove already has said he plans to call a special session in August to deal with the issue of medical malpractice insurance. Musgrove has hinted at forming some type of self-insured pool for doctors and perhaps hospitals.
Doctors and business groups have said an insurance pool is not enough.
Musgrove added that he would consider including changes in the civil justice system for all groups in the special session he calls if the joint legislative committee can reach a consensus.
An uphill battle
It has historically been an uphill battle to push civil justice changes through the Legislature. While the rhetoric of why legislators refuse to make those changes usually centers around the claim that trial lawyers dominate the House and Senate, broader political concerns of legislators play a role.
The Legislature - particularly the House - has a sizable number of rural Democrats who, in the Mississippi populist tradition, are conservative on most social issues but believe the average Mississippian needs protection from large corporations.
The recent scandals involving large companies, such as WorldCom, help fuel those beliefs.
"The juries are making these decisions," said Sen. Gray Tollison, D-Oxford. "It is not the lawyers. It is the juries - made up of regular folks working at various jobs in Mississippi.''
Langston said the stories and tragedies of the pain and suffering behind the large jury verdicts often are overlooked in the debate about the civil justice system. Many of those large verdicts, he said, are reduced or overturned on appeal. And for every large, publicized verdict, there are countless cases of a jury not awarding the plaintiff anything.
But business groups say it is not only the verdicts, but the large number of lawsuits that cause problems. Just the cost of defending those lawsuits, said Jerry McBride , president of the Mississippi Manufacturers Association, is hurting the state's business climate and economy.
A survey earlier this year by the United States Chamber of Commerce of 800 corporate counsels ranked Mississippi with the worst anti-business civil justice system in the nation.
"Clearly those states with positive ratings managed to deliver equal justice and get the benefit of being seen as a positive place for creating jobs and opportunity," said the MEC's Wilson. "We must change our mindset. We must ensure fairness and balance in a system that is out of kilter."
