Full Article at Cleveland.com
During my 17 years in Congress, and now leading the Ohio Business Roundtable, I’ve learned that Ohio succeeds when our laws are predictable, stable, and balanced.
When I began my first campaign for the Ohio House over 30 years ago, one issue came up constantly — lawsuit abuse. Every week I heard the same story: a small business facing a slip-and-fall lawsuit; a doctor leaving Ohio because malpractice premiums became unaffordable; or an employer being told by its insurer to settle, even when they did nothing wrong, because of runaway jury awards.
By the mid-1990s, Ohio was in a crisis. We were seeing doctors fleeing to other states. Businesses were avoiding making investments here, while others were wondering if they would be next to be unfairly targeted by a judicial system that was being exploited for a get-rich-quick scheme.
Predictability in the courts, the foundation of a strong economy, was slipping away.
In 1995, I began the hard work of common-sense tort reform, which eventually became law in 1997. But in an unprecedented move, the Ohio Supreme Court struck it down, ruling it unconstitutional without an injured plaintiff or an allegation of wrongdoing against a defendant. It was a blow to the rule of law.
Eventually, legislators broke that legislation into smaller bills and got it across the finish line. Those reforms established reasonable caps on noneconomic damages. These were not radical changes. They ensured that victims could be fairly compensated for real losses while preventing unpredictable, emotion-driven verdicts from crippling employers and driving up costs for everyone.
It worked. Ohio became a state where businesses could grow and insurance premiums were affordable again.
Unfortunately, that stability is under threat.
Recently, the American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) designated the 8th and 10th Ohio District Courts of Appeals, in Cleveland and Columbus, respectively, as “’Judicial Hellhole’ Dishonorable Mentions,” a distinction that should be a wake-up call. These courts have upended decades of settled law by selectively tossing out Ohio’s noneconomic damage caps in certain instances (Paganini v. Cataract Eye Center of Cleveland; Lyon v. Riverside Methodist Hospital). In doing so, they have inserted judges into the role of policymakers, picking winners and losers and creating chaos in our civil justice system.
These rulings don’t just affect lawyers or litigants. They affect every Ohioan.
When courts eliminate predictability, insurance premiums rise for doctors, drivers, homeowners, and employers. Health care costs increase, threatening Ohio’s status as home to world-class medical institutions. Small businesses face higher risks, discouraging investment and new job creation.
It culminates in families paying more for everyday goods and services as businesses face higher legal costs. That is an expense families can ill afford at a time when affordability has become a top concern for all Americans.
While both those decisions from the 8th and 10th Ohio District Courts of Appeals are pending before the Ohio Supreme Court, some legislators have proposed sharply raising the caps on noneconomic damages, ignoring the impact on consumers. I firmly oppose this approach for the same concerns about affordability — but the legislature, not the courts, is the proper place for that debate.
Ohio has worked long and hard to build a pro-growth, common-sense legal climate. We cannot afford to slide backward into an era where unpredictable courts drive away investment, undermine our health care system, and raise costs for every family.
Ohio’s economic competitiveness is on the line. Now is the time for a recommitment to the balanced system that made Ohio a national model.
Tiberi, a Republican who represented Ohio’s 12th Congressional District from 2001 to 2018, is president and CEO of the Ohio Business Roundtable. He writes from Columbus.