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Chamber of commerce community urges passage of Fair Share Act
June 6, 2011
HARRISHARRISBURG, PA – The Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and more than 60 statewide local chambers of commerce are calling on state Senate lawmakers to support Fair Share Act legislation (S.B. 2 and H.B. 1) pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee. "It is imperative that the legislature confront Pennsylvania's perilous legal climate, which for too long has stifled the business community and deterred job creation and expansion," the chamber of commerce presidents wrote in a letter to lawmakers, noting that the Pennsylvania Senate can take a key step toward improving conditions for current and prospective job creators by passing the Fair Share Act, which would reasonably reforms the rule of joint and several liability. The unjust legal doctrine of joint and several liability holds a defendant in a lawsuit liable for the entire verdict regardless of proportion of fault if other named defendants are unable to pay. Plaintiff's attorneys have taken advantage of this rule by targeting "deep pocket" defendants based not on the degree to which they are responsible for the injury, but on their ability to pay large settlements. More than 40 states have repealed or modified joint and several liability, or never had the rule in place. "This rule is fundamentally unfair," the letter continued. "The extent to which the rule of joint and several liability has been abused calls for a decisive and timely response from the General Assembly." The state House passed H.B. 1 on April 11 with the exact same language as was twice passed by the General Assembly in prior sessions with bipartisan support, before being overturned by the courts on a technicality and then, a few years later, vetoed by former Gov. Ed Rendell. H.B. 1 and its companion, S.B. 2, are currently pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by an opponent of the Fair Share Act. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman has offered his own bill, which would provide for proportional liability only when the plaintiff is found more at fault than a defendant. Since this rarely occurs, this proposal would do little more than maintain the status quo. "As representatives of and advocates for the business community in your respective districts and across Pennsylvania, we know first-hand that failure to enact commonsense legal reform has hindered Pennsylvania's efforts to compete with other states in attracting new businesses and enticing existing Pennsylvania companies to expand operations," the local chamber officials wrote, stressing that it is time for the state Senate to again side with job creators, doctors, hospitals, local governments, other industries, and consumers, by creating a more balanced legal system, starting with enactment of the Fair Share Act once and for all. The following chambers of commerce signed on to the letter:
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