The $1.7 billion verdict against Ford Motor Company for a 2014 rollover crash that killed a Georgia couple—considered the state’s largest award ever—has become the poster child for lawsuit reform. But, according to Georgia Motor Trucking Association President and CEO Ed Crowell, the plight of the state’s judicial system runs much deeper than even a landmark case and demands major reform.
Crowell, of the organization known as the "voice" of the state's trucking industry, faulted a prejudicial and muddled legal atmosphere that is costing state residents big bucks—not only for auto insurance but for consumer purchases, he said. Truckers must pay insurance too, and at times major damage awards, and this is reflected in higher supply-chain prices, he noted.
Under the headline, “What is Wrong with Georgia?” GMTA’s website makes a similar point, saying: “Lawsuit abuse needs to end in Georgia. Trial lawyers are making a mockery of justice in our state, and we all are paying for it.” Three videos then tackle three woes that GMTA identifies as playing a heavy role in what it terms a legal crisis: the seatbelt gag rule, which makes not buckling up inadmissible in court; phantom damages, inflated figures based not on what a plaintiff really paid for medical care; and third-party lawsuit financing, where some invest in lawsuits like the stock market.
In joining the outcry for justice reform, which Governor Brian Kemp himself has advocated, Crowell told GA News Gazette, “It is the entire climate. The process that’s set up, at least in the state of Georgia—and I think in other states—is often favorable to the plaintiffs and to the plaintiffs’ attorneys and it lets them gain the system and create a climate that is not tilted toward actual fair adjudication of issues.”
Steeped in controversy, the so-called seatbelt gag ruling is on the hit list of GMTA, the American Trucking Associations and civic groups like American Tort Reform Association, which has ranked Georgia the nation's leading "judicial hellhole," as GA News Gazette reported April 18. Yet as archaic and damaging as reform advocates say seatbelt silence can be in a courtroom, Crowell said it too is part of a bigger picture that considers a million-dollar award too measly to be fair and uses a barrage of billboards in metro areas to entice litigants with the lure of easy money. "They’re begging people to sue each other; they’re begging people to sue the trucking industry; and they do it because they’re created a bit of a monster,” he said.
As for the result, he said, “The cost of lawsuit abuse is embedded in just about everything that touches people these days.” As GA News Gazette also reported, Georgia motorists experienced a 22% increase on average in full car insurance rates from 2022 to 2023, representing more than $356 per year, according to MarketWatch. While it’s difficult to say how much of this spike relates to exorbitant litigation awards, Crowell said there is undoubtedly an impact.
With Governor Kemp calling for a change in this legal climate, many eyes are on the state for relief. Crowell looks for new legislation like Senate Bill 547, which though approved by Senate, expired earlier this year without House support. When a new Legislature begins resurrecting certain failed measures from last session, Crowell hopes that a version of this bill will attack seatbelt transparency once and for all, saying: “It would improve the state’s legal climate if it became law, for a couple of reasons, one of which is, it would diminish to some extent frivolous lawsuits…where the plaintiff clearly contributed to their own injuries by not wearing a seatbelt.”
He said the difficulty stems from the makeup of the Legislature itself, which contains plaintiffs’ attorneys that sometimes head up House and Senate committees considering bills like SB547. “They’ve had great success in keeping anything from changing,” said Crowell. Yet he held out hope that with the governor’s involvement, the seatbelt gag rule may be in its last days. “The governor says he’s going to really push for it, and obviously he has power,” he added.
A similar commitment to fighting for legal reform was expressed earlier this month by David Bauer, American Trucking Associations' vice president of state and tax policy, in an interview with GA News Gazette. As per the April 25 report, ATA remains dedicated to repealing the seatbelt gag rule wherever it influences jackpot awards by withholding evidence from jurors. ATA had success with a repeal in Indiana and wants to keep up the momentum in Georgia, Bauer said.
“Jurors want to do the right thing. The problem is they don’t know what they don’t know,” said ATA Deputy General Counsel Pamela Bracher on GMTA’s website video.
Calling the situation a “lawsuit abuse crisis,” ATA General Counsel Rich Pianka reaffirmed Crowell’s lament about financial impacts, saying: “This is a cost on the supply chain. This is not free money as jurors seem to often treat it. It’s money that is going to have to come from somewhere, and ultimately that’s the American consumer.”