Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Court Liability Study Moves Ahead
The Judiciary’s Rules Subcommittee made it clear at today’s meeting that it will proceed with its study of imposing a system of comparative fault in Maryland, despite protests by the business community. “We are not going to tell the Court to bug off”, advised Rules Committee Chair Judge Alan Wilner.
The Subcommittee is nearing completion of data gathering on comparative fault systems in other states. Judge Wilner invited interested parties to provide written comments by March 1 on:
- The legal question of whether the Court has the authority to adopt comparative fault by a procedural rule;
- What other collateral issues would need to be addressed by the Court; and
- The economic effects of adopting comparative fault.
See the Maryland Chamber letter, supported by 55 organizations, objecting to the Court’s study of comparative fault. If you are willing to testify against increased lawsuit costs being imposed on your business, contact Ron Wineholt at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
UPDATE: Here is an email sent by the Court to interested parties today:
NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
At yesterday’s organizational meeting of the Special Subcommittee of the Rules Committee to Study Contributory Negligence and Comparative Fault, the following initial plan of action was determined:
(1) Prepare an initial draft of the “legal landscape” [what other jurisdictions have done and how they did it];
(2) Collect information on the impact of any change from contributory negligence to something else in other jurisdictions [empirical evidence of any impact]; and
(3) Collect input on the pure legal issue of whether the Court of Appeals can make any such change by Rule [not whether the Court should do so].
As to Topics (2) and (3), above, please send any written comments you would like the Subcommittee to consider to us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), no later than March 1, 2011. Pdf files are preferred [please keep your submissions under 30 megabytes].
We hope to have available for everyone’s review a first draft of the “legal landscape” document by that date as well.
We plan to have the next meeting of the Subcommittee in March, and we will notify you of the date, time, and location.
Thank you for your interest in this topic and any information you can provide regarding topics (2) and (3).
Thank you,
Sandra F. Haines
Reporter
