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For the second time this Session, a high Republican legislator is making an attempt to hyperlink collectively contentious laws coping with lawsuits with the intention to attempt to win sufficient votes to maneuver the invoice.
Republican Rep. Tommy Gregory has been unable to maneuver his proposal (HB 1179) to crack down on third-party financing in civil lawsuits, so now he’s suggesting to merge it with a invoice (HB 569) that may improve the state’s sovereign immunity caps.
The Home Judiciary Committee will take into account the proposed committee substitute on Wednesday.
Gregory’s transfer mirrors an effort within the Senate the place a invoice that may revamp who can sue for medical malpractice was tied to an effort to place in caps on damages awarded within the lawsuits.
In each situations, it represents an effort to bridge gaps between teams that need to restrict lawsuits and people representing Florida’s trial legal professionals.
The third-party financing crackdown is a precedence for the Florida Justice Reform Institute and the American Tort Reform Basis, which repeatedly referenced third-party litigation financing in its 2023-24 Judicial Hellhole Report. The business-supported associations need the Legislature to create what it calls the Litigation Funding Safeguards and Transparency Act.
The regulation would require legal professionals who enter into third-party litigation agreements to reveal that data to their purchasers. They might additionally want to tell the court docket, opposing counsel and any recognized particular person, resembling an insurer, with a preexisting contractual obligation to indemnify or defend a celebration to the motion.
The reporting necessities would apply to preparations funded by home and worldwide third-party financing firms. Proponents of the invoice say it might defend litigants as a result of it additionally prevents litigation financiers from directing the course of authorized proceedings and contracting for a bigger share of the proceeds from a authorized continuing than collectively recovered by the plaintiffs.
The Florida Justice Reform Institute says that internationally funded litigation financing may pose a threat to U.S. nationwide and financial safety pursuits and the invoice helps stop that. The invoice workers evaluation cites a Jan. 6 letter from U.S. Sen. John Kennedy to U.S. Lawyer Normal Merrick B. Garland and U.S. Supreme Court docket Chief Justice Roberts.
The invoice is shifting without much opposition in the Senate, however Gregory has been unable to use his sway as Chair of the highly effective Judiciary Committee to maneuver his invoice by the Home Civil Justice Appropriations Committee.
The transfer to roll the problems collectively places the Florida Justice Affiliation in a predicament.
The FJA says it helps efforts to make sure the security of nationwide safety, a purported purpose of HB 1179, however the statewide trial bar affiliation has efficiently opposed the invoice within the Home. The FJA, although, has supported HB 569 which doubles the state’s sovereign immunity caps to $400,000 per particular person and $600,000 per incident. In doing so, the invoice will increase prices for native governments and authorities businesses, together with hospitals.
Filed by Republican Rep. Fiona McFarland, HB 569 is essentially the most tracked piece of laws on the LobbyTools’ Checklist of Prime 20 Tagged Payments by Subscribers.
In the meantime, this isn’t the primary time the Florida Justice Reform Institute has pushed for a crackdown on third-party litigation financing. This yr’s laws is coming ahead following a public combat between meals big Sysco and Burford Capital, the most important third-party finance and administration agency. It’s publicly traded on the New York, and London inventory exchanges with places of work in New York, London, Chicago, Washington, Singapore, Dubai, Sydney and Hong Kong.
Going through price-fixing fits, Sysco initially turned to the financier for help. Nevertheless it finally sued Buford Capital accusing the financier of meddling with its authorized technique and blocking a settlement that Burford deemed “too low.”
One other high-profile case involving third-party financiers is Bollea v. Gawker Media. Plaintiff Terry Bollea (recognized professionally as Hulk Hogan) sued Gawker Media for publishing on its web site a video of Bollea participating in sexual relations with a married girl.
Billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel secretly funded Bollea’s lawsuit. Gawker, in 2007, printed a bit outing Thiel as homosexual, however Thiel denied that impacted his option to fund the go well with.
The jury finally discovered Gawker liable and awarded Bollea $115 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages. A number of months later, Gawker filed for Chapter 11 chapter and offered a number of of its media shops earlier than settling with Bollea for $31 million.
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