Hospital group backs measure on torts, courts

The Arkansas Hospital Association gave $50,000 last month in support of Issue 1, a proposed constitutional amendment on legal fees and court rules, according to monthly financial reports filed Monday.

The money was given to Arkansans for Jobs and Justice, a pro-Issue 1 ballot campaign committee aligned with the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce.

The donation accounted for most of the money raised in June by proponents of Issue 1, and the $400,000 total given by the hospital group accounts for more than a quarter of the total raised in support of the proposal.

Jobs and Justice raised $76,300 last month, according to a monthly financial report filed with the state Ethics Commission. That amount, along with $84,426 spent, left the committee with nearly $1.1 million available to spend four months before the election.

Issue 1 is backed by much of the state's health care and business community, as well as Republicans in the Legislature who voted to place the so-called tort reform amendment on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.

The amendment would cap attorneys' fees at one-third of damages; limit non-economic damages such as pain and suffering to $500,000 or three-times the amount of compensatory damages; and give the Legislature final say over court rules.

The amendment, especially the re-working of the court rule-making process, has drawn opposition from many attorneys and judges.

At the annual Arkansas Bar Association meeting last month, several panels discussed Issue 1, donations were solicited to oppose the amendment and Arkansas Supreme Court Chief Justice Dan Kemp spoke out against the proposal.

A committee aligned with the Bar Association, called Defending Your Day in Court, raised $7,019 during the month, according to its report. The committee had $9,922 available at the end of June, after having spent $11,301.

Last week, Little Rock attorney David Couch filed a lawsuit seeking to have Issue 1 thrown off the ballot, alleging that it is several distinct amendments illegally rolled into one. Couch said Monday his work on the lawsuit is pro bono, and not on behalf of any committee.

The largest committee raising funds to oppose the measure, the Committee to Protect AR Families, did not have its monthly report loaded to the state's Ethics Commission website.

A director for the group, Col. Mike Ross, said Monday, which was the filing deadline, that he would seek to make copies available to a reporter, but none were. Last month, the group reported having $1.3 million available.

Carl Vogelpohl, the campaign manager for the pro-amendment Jobs and Justice Committee, said he hoped neither side would begin spending their reserves on TV and radio ads before summer's end.

"It kind of depends on whether someone from the other side goes up with a whole lot of nonsense" warranting a response, Vogelpohl said. "I'm a believer that a campaign should start around Labor Day."

A Section on 07/17/2018