In Virginia, we are fortunate to remain governed by leaders who want to do best by all. After November’s elections, House Speaker Don Scott said, “We’re going to keep focused and we’re going to remain disciplined. The word of the day now is ‘restraint.’ We can’t overreach. We have to be restrained, we have to be wise with the gift that the voters have given us, to govern.” So, while Virginia leads the way, many other states are facing significant challenges from wolves who are only steps away from our gate.
Meet Wolf 1 – You may have heard of him
Uber. After an unsuccessful campaign in Nevada last year when Uber tried a ballot initiative that included a 20 percent cap on all attorney fees, they are coming even stronger in broader attacks across other states. In California, for example, they have filed a slightly different contingency fee initiative that severely restricts what clients can collect for medical bills. As another example, there are efforts under way to guarantee those who sue receive 75 percent of any award regardless of case costs, attorney’s fees or other expenses. This extraordinarily well funded wolf keeps trying new ways to stop access to justice. ensure those who sue receive 75 percent of an award regardless of costs involved or attorney fees. Several states are aggressively answering.
Meet Wolf 2
Efforts to kill Third Party Litigation Financing. While a congressional effort has been temporarily halted, efforts are under way in a number of states to restrict a lawyer’s access to any kind of capital. This effort has been partially successful in a few states.
Meet Wolf 3
All of the tort reform measures you have heard about for years: collateral source, crippling caps, and more. South Carolina, Georgia and Florida had devastating tort reform sweep through their states in the past several years.
Meet Wolf 4
Trucking damage caps. Efforts remain under way to severely cap damages and usher in protections for the trucking industry. Protections for the industry do not mean safety for the public.
Meet Wolf 5
Pesticide immunity. “Oh, we don’t need to worry about that here; that’s a Midwest issue,” right? While pesticide immunity (from products like RoundUp) issues certainly did begin two years ago in Idaho, Missouri and Iowa, last year there were efforts in 21 states. Two states – North Dakota and Georgia did pass some form of immunity.
Meet Wolf 6
This wolf has several heads: Big Tech. Artificial Intelligence. Big Data. There are multitudes of issues in these areas, from immunities to privacy concerns to product liability. There are dozens of examples such as the safety of children and youth online, where liability should lie in automated vehicles, whether software is a “product” in existing statutes, and even how to put guardrails on big data (take one company collecting as many medical records as possible, charging exorbitant fees in some cases to retrieve that information, only to scrub and sell to big pharma and ad agencies for massive profit).
We continue to need your support to keep the wolves at bay. Mark January 28th on your calendar to be in Richmond through the morning for our Justice Day (VTLA’s lobby day) where you will hear a live update on Virginia legislation and we encourage you to meet with your legislators on VTLA bills. A registration link will be in December’s Law Letter. Please continue or even consider increasing your support of VTLA through your contributions of time, talent and treasure and we will do our best to keep Virginia strong.
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