South Carolina Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey (R-Edgefield), author of S.244, explained the problem he is seeking to rectify during a February 6 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, which is that “the current law allows for one party to be 100% responsible even if we acknowledge that he didn’t cause all 100% — and that’s not fair.” Just as it is “not fair for an injured person not to be able to recover 100% of his damages,” Leader Massey said, so too is it unfair for a defendant deemed only partially responsible to be forced to cover restitution costs in their entirety.
“The lawsuit industry in South Carolina is out of control,” the Palmetto Promise Institute (PPI), a South Carolina-based think tank, explained in a February 7 blog post announcing the release of a new report on the need to pass tort reform. “Drive down any highway in our state, and you’ll see it lined with billboards for trial lawyers. The sheer quantity are a clear sign that something in our state is sorely wrong.”
“Businesses with as little as 1% of fault are paying 100% of the damages in civil suits,” PPI added. “And every South Carolina household is paying an extra $3,181 every year in a ‘lawsuit tax’ thanks to this racket.”
Failure to pass tort reform, PPI and others contend, has contributed to rising insurance costs for South Carolina employers, particularly bars and restaurants, forcing some to close. “Patron behavior at these establishments is a factor, as well as insurance companies attempting to clear a profit,” PPI notes, adding that “government actions of various kinds interfere at multiple points.”
Employers in South Carolina have complained to lawmakers and the media about rapidly rising insurance rates, which tort reform proponents say S.244 would help rectify. “Restaurants and bars are closing across the state at an alarming rate, with about 10 shutting down in Charleston alone in the last month,” the Charleston Post & Courier reported last September, adding that “a discussion about local business closures rarely concludes without the mention of liquor liability insurance.”
There are plenty of anecdotes illustrating the spike in insurance costs facing employers. “One bar on King Street,” the Post & Courier noted, “has seen its rates go from $5,000 to $40,000.”
Trial lawyers, unsurprisingly, oppose and are working to defeat S.244. “What about the single mom who’s in a car accident with her kid and there’s a catastrophic injury, and because of tort reform their percent is being drastically reduced?” Representative Gil Gatch (R-Dorchester), one of many lawyers who serve in the part-time South Carolina statehouse said. “This is about right and wrong, and it’s about standing up to these big corporate interests that want protection from having to pay out damages to people who’ve been injured.”
Representative Gatch and other S.244 opponents argue it will not bring down insurance costs. S.244 proponents, meanwhile, contend it will.
“Small businesses shouldn’t be punished for someone else’s mistake just because they might have more money, but that’s what existing state law allows,” the head of National Federation of Independent Business’s South Carolina chapter wrote in a February 13 post urging lawmakers to pass tort reform, adding that “S. 244 would help reduce frivolous claims by ensuring that small businesses and other defendants are held responsible only for their fair share of damages.”
Tort Reform Also A Top Priority In Georgia
South Carolina isn’t the only place where leading lawmakers believe tort reform would make their state more economically competitive and a less costly place to do business. Next door in Georgia, for example, Governor Brian Kemp (R) and Republican lawmakers in Atlanta have also made tort reform a top priority during their current legislative session. Two tort reform bills, Senate Bills 68 and 69, have been introduced by Senate President Pro Tem John F. Kennedy (R-Macon) and will soon get a floor vote in the Georgia Senate.
“Senate Bill 68 would address several aspects of tort reform, including but not limited to reevaluating premises liability, requiring a truthful calculation of damages in personal injury cases (thereby eliminating ‘phantom damages’), and allowing a jury to know whether a plaintiff was wearing his or her seatbelt in an auto accident,” explains the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, an Atlanta-base think tank. “The bill also proposes changes seeking to eliminate loopholes and amend certain procedures to ensure a fairer legal environment. SB 69 seeks to regulate third party litigation financing with the hope of limiting outside influence on trials, which includes that from foreign governments, and predatory lending practices.”
Leaders in South Carolina and Georgia who are aiming to pass a series of tort reform bills this year can point to what has transpired in Florida after Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed multiple tort reform measures into law in 2022 and 2023. “Mr. DeSantis this month said 11 new insurers have entered the market over the last two years as a result of tort reforms,” the Wall Street Journal noted in a January 18 editorial. “Since 2022 more than 477,000 policies have shifted from Citizens Property back to the private market, which will reduce the risk of a taxpayer bailout if there’s a bad storm.”
“The Governor said Florida had the lowest average homeowners’ premium increases in the nation this past year—just 1%,” the editorial added, along with the fact that four of the largest 10 insurance carriers in Florida have have applied for rate cuts at a time when residents of other states are being hit with 20% rate hikes. “Auto premiums are also falling with major companies, including GEICO (-10.5%), Progressive (-8.1%), and State Farm (-6%), filing for rate reductions. Litigation over auto glass repairs plunged by 90% between the second quarters of 2023 and 2024.”
Many states have lowered and flattened income taxes in recent years. That, along with the steady expansion of school choice, are arguably the most consequential state policy trends of the past decade and they are persisting at least through 2025. Popular governors and legislative leadership some of the nation’s fastest growing states are making tort reform a top priority this year. If they’re successful, 2025 could be the year that tort reform is added to the mix of top policy reform trends gaining traction in the states.
