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The PA Chamber and more than 100 statewide local chambers of commerce and business, health-care and local government associations are urging the state House to vote “yes” on legislation (S.B. 1131) that would re-enact the Fair Share Act in the Commonwealth.

Approved by the state Senate on Tuesday, June 21, the measure advanced from the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, June 22. The full House is expected to vote the bill on final passage on Saturday, June 25. Gov. Tom Corbett has made signing the bill into law a priority.

In a letter to House lawmakers, the coalition asked legislators to reject any amendments designed to weaken the reform measure or render it meaningless, and to ignore the inaccurate rhetoric from opponents of the effort to reform the unfair legal doctrine of joint and several liability.

In a related press release, the PA Chamber noted that the same language contained in S.B. 1131 received bipartisan support in the legislature in 2002 and 2006. Two major Pennsylvania newspapers, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Harrisburg Patriot-News, have also expressed support for financial liability reform as proposed by the Fair Share Act. And according to a 2011 statewide legal reform survey conducted by Susquehanna Polling and Research, 76 percent of respondents favor the legislation as well.

The Trial Lawyers Bar, Pennsylvania Bar Association (although not all members) and the AFL-CIO are the only groups decrying the current lawsuit abuse reform effort.

More than 40 states have repealed or modified joint and several liability – and have not taken steps to return to that system – and a handful of other states have never had the rule in place.
The PA Chamber and other coalition members are asking lawmakers to stand with job creators, hospitals, doctors, local governments and businesses of all sizes by swiftly passing S.B. 1131.

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The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry is the state’s largest broad-based business association, with thousands of statewide members representing businesses of all sizes and all industry sectors. The PA Chamber is The Statewide Voice of Business™. More information is available on the Chamber’s website at www.pachamber.org.