The South Carolina Policy Council followed up on our previous reporting with the S.C. Venues Act for liability reform by putting out the below press release today.
Horry County Senator Luke Rankin sponsored a law that has created unfair civil liabilities for all S.C. Businesses. Senator Rankin’s largest constituent is the trial lawyers, who were the big financial winners in the legislation he passed. It was the S.C. Trial Lawyer’s former President Alex Murdaugh who helped Rankin become S.C. Senate Judiciary Head.
The S.C. Policy council explains the law here.
Columbia, SC โ South Carolina is at risk of seeing fewer jobs and less economic growth if the S.C. General Assembly fails to address and reform the stateโs egregiously unfair civil liability system, which forces businesses to unfairly pay legal claims for damages they did not cause. The findings come from a new report by the South Carolina Policy Council (SCPC), the Palmetto Stateโs longest-serving free market research organization.
โIn many states, if you cause someone harm, you pay your share of damages โ no more, no less. But not in South Carolina,โ said Bryce Fiedler, senior policy analyst at SCPC. โItโs time for South Carolina to join other states and assign fault based on actual damages caused, not because someone has money. Our current system is unfair and unjust, and it is putting local job creators, particularly small businesses, at risk.โ
Currently, South Carolina businesses can be forced to pay entire legal verdicts even if they were only partially at fault for an incident, a concept known as โjoint and severalโ liability. Small- and medium-sized companies are at particular risk under this law, and there is concern it will deter them from locating or doing business in our state.
- In South Carolina, a defendant in a civil case who is partially at fault for an injury can be forced to pay 100% of a courtโs verdict. Select businesses are often targeted because of this law, many of whom face disproportionate and unfair damage awards.
- Rising insurance rates and a poor legal climate will harm South Carolinaโs ability to compete for jobs in the future, putting recent economic progress in jeopardy.
- Small- and medium-sized businesses are at particular risk in our state, as many cannot afford or are unwilling to bear the legal costs necessary to operate in a precarious legal environment.
- A pair of House and Senate bills (H.3933 & S.533) would address problems with the current law and help reduce the number of businesses forced to pay unfair damage awards in civil cases, but would not entirely fix the underlying problem. Another bill (H.3053) would completely repeal joint and several liability and hold each party liable based on their percentage of fault, while allowing allocation of fault to nonparties.
A damaging economic impact
- South Carolinaโs liability system was ranked 37th in the nation by the Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) in a 2019 report. It was ranked 34th by ILR just two years prior, showing a trend for the worse.
- Eighty-nine percent of businesses indicated that a stateโs litigation environment is likely to impact their business decisions, including where to locate, according to a survey as part of ILRโs 2019 report. Half indicated that it is very likely.
- According to a 2022 IRL report, South Carolinaโs tort costs are an astonishing 2.6% of the state GPD, which can be measured as a cost of $3,181 per household. The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce notes that Palmetto State businesses are often paying for these costs through high insurance premiums and litigation expenses, which are passed on to the consumer.
- A whopping 87% of S.C. Republican primary voters indicated support for civil liability reform and answered โyesโ to the following ballot question in 2022: โIn a situation where there is more than one person responsible for damages in a lawsuit, do you support changing South Carolina law so that each person should pay damages based on that personโs actual share of fault?โ
โWith other states continuing their efforts to improve their legal environments, South Carolina must take swift action to reform its civil liability law or risk being left behind. Addressing joint and several liability is a good place to start,โ said Fielder. โThe Policy Council urges the Legislature to repeal joint and several liability and replace it with a pure several liability model, under which a defendant is only financially liable for their percentage of fault.โ
Read the full report here.