Florida jettisons joint and several liability.Business interests, including the American Tort Reform Association The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA), founded in 1986, is an organization that advocates for "tort reform." Its membership consists of more than 300 businesses, corporations, municipalities, associations, and professional firms. , have been pursuing legislation nationwide that would eliminate joint and several liability for negligent defendants. Unfortunately, legislators in Florida recently succumbed to the pressures of big business and passed House Bill 145, which scraps joint and several liability. The new law would require each defendant to pay only its proportionate share of liability, regardless of whether the plaintiff has been made whole. Trial attorneys in the state attempted to amend the bill to prevent fault from being apportioned ap·por·tion tr.v. ap·por·tioned, ap·por·tion·ing, ap·por·tions To divide and assign according to a plan; allot: "The tendency persists to apportion blame as suits the circumstances" to nonparties, but this failed by a very close vote in the Senate. The bill passed the state legislature A state legislature may refer to a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. The following legislatures exist in the following political subdivisions: Under Florida's current law, joint and several liability applies only to economic damages for defendants who are more than 10 percent at fault. A sliding scale for joint and several applicability varies according to parties' fault and level of damages. Nationwide, the District of Columbia District of Columbia, federal district (2000 pop. 572,059, a 5.7% decrease in population since the 1990 census), 69 sq mi (179 sq km), on the east bank of the Potomac River, coextensive with the city of Washington, D.C. (the capital of the United States). and seven states--Alabama, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. , Rhode Island Rhode Island, island, United States Rhode Island, island, 15 mi (24 km) long and 5 mi (8 km) wide, S R.I., at the entrance to Narragansett Bay. It is the largest island in the state, with steep cliffs and excellent beaches. , and Virginia--have pure joint and several liability. It has been abolished in Georgia and Wyoming; all other states have modified its application in various ways. Joint and several liability ensures that victims recover fully for their injuries and are not victimized further by the legal system. But under Florida's new law, injured plaintiffs will be required to forgo some of the damages that a jury has determined they are entitled to--solely because one or more defendants are found to lack funds. |
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