Wednesday, July 17, 2013

More fallout from court decisions striking tort reform

This month, I wrote in the Journal Record that the recent Douglas decision, striking the Comprehensive Lawsuit Reform Act ("CLRA") of 2009, no doubt resulted in a flurry of activity for lawyers.   There is also activity among lawmakers.  The Tulsa World reports that lawmakers may call a special session to consider 22 to 24 bills "to recreate the entire measure the court found offensive."

Meanwhile, the Oklahoma Supreme Court Clerk's office has published a new set of judgment interest rates based on its interpretation of Douglas.  (Is this interpretation correct?  That remains to be seen.)

As noted in my Journal Record column, it is possible that post-2009 amendments may have "saved" certain of the provisions of the CLRA, based on the "re-enactment" provision of Article 5, Section 57 of the Oklahoma Constitution.

Yet, the legislature may decide to recreate these amendments anyway in order to resolve challenges.

It appears that Justice Winchester was correct in predicting that “chaos ... will inevitably follow this opinion.”