Grange Members Urged To Support Lawsuit Abuse Reform (Continued from Page A 23) Wolff said the coalition also is considering setting caps on puni tive damages, which are those awards above and beyond what the jury sets for compensation. Wolff said the amount of puni tive (an amount set as punishment) awards arc sometimes two to three times the amount of the actual damages involved, because some times juries and judges are urged to punish certain defendants exces sively in order to “send a message." Wolff asked, should the plaintiff receive the amount of excessive punative damages, or should it go to the state, or should it go to some other entity? Another issue that has come up mote and more has to do with the means by which a court establishes competency of witnesses to serve as “expert” witnesses. The rules are loose enough so that it has become widely recog nized that certain “experts” are coached, unqualified and biased to whichever side calls upon them to support their argument in court. Wolff said the coalition position currently is to have “experts” be those people acknowledged by their scientific community as being “expert” They should at least be required to have some Gffgta&aaag'e&ag ft Agricultural Washdowns 717-949-321* SPECIALIZING IN Poultry Houses; Layers, Breeders, Broilers Hog, Veal and Dairy Barns High Pressure, Low Volume Washing RD #1 Box 147, Newmanstown, PA 17073 experience and background close to the discipline of concern. Wolff said the coalition organi zation is directed so far tty a 2 5-member board of directors. Included on the board are six rep resentatives from the medical pro fessions; six from local govern ments; six from the business com munity; and seven at large. The group met to discuss issues and arrived at a number of key points about lawsuit reform that they held in common. “One oftfae thing evident to all groups (repre sented) is, there is a preponderance of frivolous lawsuits." Wolff said that in reality, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has an ability to create solutions, were it to adopt a rule change similar to federal rules. He said the federal system include a 5-part screening process for lawsuits to determine ftivol ousness. Wolff said that if the Pen nsylvania Supreme Court would adopt those, then the state probab ly wouldn't need reform. Working on the coalition with Wolff is John Shirvinsky, who was FORAGE CHOPPER KNIVES 8 KN ROTOR $ 44. 5 ° * 830/881 ■- $ 64. 00 6 KN ROTOR $ 49. 5 ° New Holland | 890/895 $44. 5 ° $44 so $B7" Gehl Case-1 H Fox New Holland 770 John Deere 3960/3970 5200 Zenith Parkway • P.O. Box 2252 • Rockford, IL 61131 -0252 Visit Our Website; www.zenithcutter.com ‘ £ •fvi * ‘ I *.'* 1 *■' ■*' AA * hired to build grass roots support for the issue. Shirvinsky said that some peo ple may remember him from work ing as president of the Pennsylva nia Cod Association. Shirvinsky said that what the coalition has found is that many of what it considers to be the frivol ous lawsuits are, in many cases, filed by the same people and by the same attorneys. According to both men, the coalition is now looking to gain support for the concept of lawsuit abuse change, instead of seeking immediate action before the issue has had a chance to gain public support “We wanted to have a draft cir culated among organizations that could review it and provide input,” Wolff said. “Maybe by next year, after review, we can have legisla tion introduced.” To build grassroots support, Shirvinsky started by breaking the state down into nine different reg ions, based on the state’s six dominant marketing regions, to create an effective localized issue- ngs on Shear Bars, Grind Stones and Bolts -800-223-5202 f, i l >' campaign strategy. Berks County was selected as its own area, he said, because the chairman of both the state Senate and House judiciary committees are both from that county. He said the strategy is to talk to the legislators’ personal physician, certified public accountant, neigh bors and church members to get them to visit their legislator to dis cuss the issue and how it affects them. He also talked about the federal rules (Rule 11) that the state could adopt. He said the organization is looking at developing them for recommendation to the state. He said that recently he met with member of the Pennsylvania Township Supervisors Associa tion and told them, “Nice cops are bad news for local government” He talked about two liability suit cases where local government and officials were sued after given the plaintiffs a break during an origi nal incident In one case, state police alleged ly left a woman off the hook for driving under the influence when Special Pricing Good Through June 30th she took a turn too fast and went off the road According to Shirvinsky, when the car left the roadway the tires kicked gravel back onto the road way, and to help the woman, the officer repotted the cause of acci dent as gravel on the roadway. The woman turned around, backstabbing the officer who did her a personal good deed, and sued the township for leaving gravel on the roadway. He said focus groups were used to determine that “lawsuit abuse” was mote understandable than “tort reform.” Shirvinsky said polls were also done, showing 84 percent thought lawsuit abuse is a problem, and anytime more than an 80-percent response is found, it is considered a “good issue” to pursue for getting political change. The lowest percentage approval was 79.15 percent on any of the polling questions regarding law suit reform. He said those polled understand who is going to benefit from law (Turn to Page A3O) *'» * *
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