The South Carolina Senate failed to advance tort reform legislation this year despite considerable lobbying by small business groups.
Called the South Carolina Justice Act, the bill would have changed the state tort reform law to a position where a defendant in a tort action would be financially liable only for their percentage of fault. The current law can leave one defendant on the hook to pay all awarded damages regardless of their percentage of fault.
At the time of its introduction into the Senate last year, Tom Mullikan, President and General Counsel for the South Carolina Coalition for Lawsuit Reform, said, “Without this legislation, South Carolina may lose economic development projects to neighboring states like Georgia and North Carolina where liability laws are more balanced.”