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Making Headway
Editorial by Dan Hendrickson

Judge Nikki Clark,  here in Tallahassee, signed and
mailed an order on Friday, Feb 9 voiding the entire Fla Tort Reform Act
passed in 1999 as unconstitutional under Florida's Constitution.  Her
ten-page opinion is a hard-won victory for Florida's consumers and victims.
Businesses seeking to avoid liability and accountability for injuries,
deaths, environmental damages, etc. will now have to pay a little more
insurance to make sure injured plaintiffs don't have their lives financially
destroyed in addition to whatever events ripped their lives and families
apart.
    Congratulations to the great coalition work and of course the leadership
and singular expertise of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers  (and the
national ATLA).   The Academy co-ordinated a broad-scale legal challenge in
Leon Circuit Court which included plaintiffs FCAN, Coalition for Family
Safety, Florida League of Conservation Voters, Florida State Conference of
NAACP Branches, Florida AFL-CIO, DES Action, Florida National Organization of
Women, Association of Flight Attendants, Children's Advocacy Foundation, Al
J. Cone and the Florida State Council of Senior Citizens.
    The case, styled "FCAN v. JEB Bush," was crawling its way to trial,
despite the intervention of various Big Money Special Interests who bought
this legislation with tens of millions of dollars in campaign contributions
and lobbying blitz.   The corporate lobby groups who intervened to defend the
tort deform law included:  Tort Reform United Effort (TRUE), Publix
Supermarkets, Florida Farm Bureau Federation, Associated Industries of
Florida, Citizens for a Sound Economy, Florida Chamber of Commerce, Florida
Medical Association, Florida Institute of CPA's, Florida Retail Federation,
Florida United Business Association, National Federation of Independent
Business, Association of Community Hospitals and Health Systems, City of
Orlando, Dade County, Florida Association of Counties, Florida League of
Cities, Florida Sheriffs' Association, the Flying "D" Ranch, and Usher Land &
Timber.
     Despite all the business blitzkrieg which has nearly filled her
courtroom with lawyers and resulted in thousands of pages of expensive
pleadings, etc., Judge Clark granted plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment
because (get this, enviros: the act violated the single-subject rule in
Florida's Constitution!  How many other laws have been shoved through during
the final days of legislature in the last several years with special
interests' bills stapled onto some other legislation without adequate public
review or even minimal consideration by legislators themselves?!! What
opportunities this may open back up for us!)  She also denied defendants'
motions to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed in December 1999.
    The case will surely be appealed and the tort deformers will start the
legislative onslaught again.  Hopefully the legislators will have the guts to
tell them to wait until after the appeal and to come with real public policy
problems this time if they want "legal reforms," not just a corporate welfare
package for thousands of corporations trying to maximize the bottom line at
the expense of the injured and most vulnerable in our society.

- Dan Hendrickson
Fla Sierra Political Committee

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