Tort Law
HB 91 / HB 434 – Restriction on co-employee liability.
Requires co-employees to be released from liability for negligence in
performing the nondelegable duty of an employer to provide a safe
workplace when the negligence contributes to injury or death.
HB 158 – Statute of limitation for injurious falsehood. Creates a two year statute of limitation for actions for injurious falsehood.
HB 200 – Gross negligence standard for inmate suicide.
Makes gross negligence the standard of proof in actions for damages
against correctional facilities as the result of the death, by suicide,
of any person confined in such a facility.
Oppose.
HB 269 – Tort immunity for certain not-for-profits. Adds
certain not-for-profit organizations to the term “public entity” as it
relates to tort immunity and limits the state’s liability in tort claims
involving motor vehicles and dangerous conditions.
Oppose.
HB 364 / SB 211 – Abolishment of joint and several liability.
Changes the determination of a defendant’s liability in a tort action
for damages by specifying that the liability of each defendant for
compensatory or punitive damages must be several and cannot be joint.
No Position – Share comments.
HB 454 – “Good Samaritan” liability.
Specifies that any person who gratuitously and in good faith renders
any service to another individual cannot be civilly or criminally liable
for any act or omission with certain specified exceptions.
HB 606 – Limitation of punitive damages. Lowers the maximum award of punitive damages to the greater of $250,000 or two times the net amount of the judgment.
HB 785 / SB 379 – Limitation of products liability cases. Restricts the time to file a products liability claim and when a manufacturer or seller of a product may be liable.
SB 69 – Civil action for victims of pornographic offenses. Modifies
provisions relating to children who are victims of pornographic
offenses; creates a civil action for victims of certain offenses against
a person convicted of a crime as a result of the offender’s production,
possession, or promotion of the material in which the victim is
depicted.
SB 149 – Expert witnesses in health care actions.
Modifies the laws regarding the testimony of physicians as expert
witnesses in lawsuits against physicians for improper health care;
prohibits an expert witness from testifying regarding the standard of
care in a medical malpractice action unless the witness is licensed and
actively engaged in the clinical practice of medicine, and devoting at
least three-fourths of his or her professional tiem to active clinical
practice of substantially the same specialty as the defendant; specifies
that a physician licensed in another state who testifies as an expert
witness in a medical malpractice suit shall be considered to have a
temporary license to practice medicine in Missouri and is subject to the
authority of the Board of Registration for the Healing Arts; makes
evidence obtained under a contingency fee agreement with a third party
inadmissible in certain circumstances.
Oppose.
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