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AJC.com > Legislature > Georgia Beat > Archives > 2005 > February > 16
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Perdue signs law capping jury awards
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Calling it “a great bill for Georgia,” Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law Wednesday legislation that will cap pain and suffering awards in medical malpractice lawsuits at $350,000, or up to $1.05 million in multidefendant cases. It was the first bill signed into law this session.
At a signing ceremony at the Women’s Center at Northside Hospital, the governor said Georgia was on the verge of a crisis with doctor’s leaving the profession because the cost of malpractice insurance.
“This is about access to health care,” he said. ” I’m here today at this wonderful women’s center
The law also will make it difficult for a victim of malpractice to win damages, including lost wages and medical bills, for injuries caused by negligence in an emergency room procedure.
Doctors and hospitals say the legislation was needed to hold down exorbitant malpractice insurance premiums that are forcing physicians to leave Georgia or stop practicing.
Consumer groups countered that limits on jury awards are inherently unfair and prevent malpractice victims from being fully compensated.
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Constitutional amendment would protect Georgians’ hunting, fishing rights
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Senate voted 44-4 Wednesday in favor of a proposed constitutional amendment to preserve the tradition of hunting and fishing in the state.
The amendment would ensure Georgia’s laws protecting hunting and fishing could not be overturned, said Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah).
“There are activists judges and future Legislatures … that could restrict further our heritage and our historic right to hunting and fishing,” said Johnson, the resolution’s sponsor.
The measure now moves to the House. If it is approved there, voters will have the final say at the polls.
Johnson said there are about 400,000 hunters in Georgia. He said that eight other states have similar constitutional amendments, and that 10 states are considering the change.
Earlier in the day, the first public spat between rural and urban lawmakers in the Senate erupted over a bill that would change the federal funding balance for public road projects.
The Senate voted 42 to 9 in favor of Senate Bill 4, a measure that would allow the state to allocate money to interstate road projects by need rather than dividing the pot equally among Georgia’s 13 congressional districts.
Sen. Mitch Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg), the bill’s sponsor, said that under the current funding formula, there are fewer dollars for local road projects. He said the bill would not favor metro Atlanta and its suburbs.
But some rural legislators disagreed.
“This Senate Bill 4 will have a direct impact on rural Georgia roads,” said Sen. J.B. Powell (D-Blythe). “If you take all this interstate money off the top, rural Georgia roads will suffer.”
Democrat Doug Stoner of Smyrna, a metro Atlanta suburb, said that interstate roads were critical to the rest of the state to move trucks and products.
“In the end this will help all Georgians by maintaining our interstates and moving traffic around the state,” Stoner said.
The Senate unanimously approved a bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Dan Moody (R-Alpharetta) and Sen. Gloria Butler (D-Stone Mountain), to allow for the MARTA board to remove a member who has violated its code of ethics. The bill passed 52-0.
Moody said that the bill would give an appointing authority - such as the City of Atlanta or the Gwinnett County Commission - a maximum of 120 days to remove a MARTA board member who has been censured.
If the appointing authority did not make a decision, the MARTA board could take action on its own. “The intent of this legislation is to reinforce that there is a code of ethics that needs to be followed,” Moody said.
Senate Minority Leader David Adelman (D-Atlanta) offered an amendment changing the maximum time limit to 60 days. The amendment passed unanimously.
Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford) asked Moody whether he drafted the bill to target a MARTA board member from Gwinnett.
Last April, Gwinnett County’s MARTA representative Mychal Walker made headlines when a MARTA ethics panel found he had committed ethical breaches by accepting $20,000 in consulting fees from a lobbyist for a company bidding on a $100 million contract.
Gwinnett County commissioners will hold a hearing March 22 to decide whether to remove him from the board. State law currently requires such a hearing before a MARTA board member can be removed. Walker has denied any wrongdoing.
The Senate adjourned shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday. The Senate meets at 10 a.m. Thursday.
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Law would again limit tint on vehicle windows
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia House passed legislation today that would reinstate the state ban on heavily tinted car windows and broaden the restrictions to cover out-of-state vehicles.
The vote was 125 to 33.
State Rep. Calvin Hill (R-Canton), the bill’s chief sponsor, said the legislation will allow the state to bring back its tinting law, which the Georgia Supreme Court declared unconstitutional last June because it did not apply to out-of-state motorists.
State Rep. David Lucas (D-Macon) questioned how the state can impose guidelines on motorists from other states. He announced plans to ask the House on Monday to reconsider its vote.
The bill maintains the 32 percent visibility standard that had been required under a 1990 state law. It applies to all windows and windshields of most passenger vehicles and the front windshield and front windows of all multipurpose vehicles, including sport utility vehicles, minivans and extended cab trucks, Hill said.
Motorists caught violating the law may be ticketed and would face the standard misdemeanor maximum punishment of a $1,000 fine and up to 12 months in prison.
The legislation also allows law enforcement agencies to use tint meters to determine compliance. In the past they had to depend on a sticker that was on the vehicle and could be subject to fraud, Hill said.
Trooper Larry Schnall, a spokesman for the Georgia State Patrol, said the bill is “all about officer safety.�
“Approaching a vehicle in the daytime hours with dark windows can be very scary for an officer and it’s even worse at night,� Schnall said. “They could be shot and never see it coming.�
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House bill protects doctors, hospitals from lawsuits
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Doctors, hospitals and other medical providers would be offered lawsuit protection in exchange for providing free health care services to the poor under a bill overwhelmingly approved this afternoon by the Georgia House.
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Mickey Channell (D-Greensboro) would allow Georgia to develop a program similar to one in Florida, where about 15,000 health care professionals offer free health care services to the poor in exchange for immunity from lawsuits.
Some House members voiced concern that the state could be setting up a two-tier system of health care. Others argued that health care professionals will get lawsuit protection and can still be compensated through the Indigent Care Trust Fund.
Channell argued that the bill will expand access to health care and boost volunteerism in the health care community.
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House makes push for rush-hour travel lanes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia House today voted 103 to 57 in favor of legislation that encourages the state Department of Transportation to consider converting some emergency lanes and shoulders along the state’s most congested highways into rush-hour travel lanes.
DOT officials have deemed the idea impractical for several reasons, including safety and costs.
State Rep. Mary Margaret Oliver (D-Decatur) tried unsuccessfully to amend the bill to expand the state’s mandatory seatbelt law to cover sports utility vehicles and the passenger seats of pickup trucks.
House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) ruled Oliver’s amendment not pertinent to the bill — so there was no vote on it.
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