Many state legislatures have taken a crack at tort reform, but few states have gone as far as Georgia. Its law, enacted Feb. 16, is so strict that many legal observers have wondered whether it is constitutional.
A partial answer came Sept. 22, when a Georgia state court struck down one part of the new law that punishes tort plaintiffs for rejecting certain settlement offers. The court found this statutory provision violated several parts of the state’s constitution, including the equal protection clause and the guarantee of access to the courts. Muenster v. Suh, No. 03-A-01873-4 (Sup. Ct. Gwinnett Co.).
The Georgia statute at issue, Official Code of Georgia Annotated, No. 9-11-68, is in many ways similar to Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and other states’ settlement laws. These laws create potential penalties for any civil litigant who turns down a settlement offer and proceeds to trial. If the litigant wins a verdict that is less than the amount of the proposed settlement, the statute requires the litigant to pay some of the other side’s legal costs.
Details here from the ABA Journal.