By Tim Conboy, guest columnist
While everyone is entitled to an opinion about creating jobs, the proposition made by Lawrence McQuillan of the Pacific Research Institute (PRI), in "Tort Reform Would Create Jobs in Pennsylvania," July 22, 2010, does not stand up to scrutiny.
McQuillan's proposition is that taking away Pennsylvania citizens' constitutional rights by placing caps on damages would improve Pennsylvania's economy. The disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, however, demonstrates how caps on damages of any kind do not help the economy.
Remember Exxon Valdez? After that disaster, the oil industry convinced Congress to pass a law limiting the liability of a negligent oil company for an oil spill at $75 million. Now we can see why.
A $75 million dollar cap on damages is a bargain compared to the billions that have been lost already in wages, economic activity, tax revenue and the irreparable damage done to the Gulf region's natural resources. If BP had not agreed to accept responsibility for their negligence beyond $75 million, who would compensate those individuals and businesses harmed? It would be the government (read: the taxpayer) who would assist them in their time of need.
Caps on damages are simply the way big business and big insurance pushes the risk of harm created through their negligence onto taxpayers. McQuillan and PRI gave voice to this effort in these pages on July 22.
McQuillan ignores statistics from our own Supreme Court that lawsuits filed as a result of medical malpractice are down dramatically as are the award amounts. Procedural rule changes adopted by the Court and the statutory changes enacted by the General Assembly have made a difference.
Over 10 years ago Texas passed some of the most severe tort changes in the country, the same type McQuillan urges us to adopt in Pennsylvania. Under McQuillan's theory, employment should be booming in Texas. However, all anyone needs to do is to drive around Western Pennsylvania to the sites of drilling rigs to discover that thousands of Texans have come to Pennsylvania to work. If tort reform creates jobs, why aren't Texans working in Texas? Because new oil and gas drilling in Texas has virtually ceased.
So Texans have come to Pennsylvania to work because here there is an uptick in the oil and gas business, and employment in this industry is available.
McQuillan and the California-based Pacific Research Institute wouldn't know about that. Nor would they care. Their real agenda is to gain immunity for corporate polluters, makers of harmful drugs and products, and giant insurance companies. They want to cap our 7th Amendment rights and push other proposals to shift the responsibility of the harm caused by their paymasters to the taxpayer.
We need a strong civil justice system with full accountability to protect us against tainted products from China, out-of-control Toyotas, and corporate polluters. Who is going to protect us when the next oil spill occurs?
Jobs are created by a strong economy and a safe workforce, not by taking away Constitutional rights.
Tim Conboy, a partner in the law firm of Caroselli, Beachler, McTiernan & Conboy, Pittsburgh, is the new president of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice.
