In a victory for consumers, environmentalists, children, seniors and attorneys, Florida Judge Nikki Ann Clark declared that state's sweeping "tort reform" law unconstitutional in a decision issued Friday, February 9, 2001. Clark was the judge who presided over the Seminole County absentee ballot case in the aftermath of the 2000 presidential election, where she ruled in favor of the Republicans.

Finding that the law violated the state constitution's ban on laws that embrace more than one subject, Judge Clark found that the enactment amounted to a "classic case of logrolling" and embraced no fewer than 20 wholly unrelated subjects. The only way legislation with a multitude of subjects can be constitutionally enacted in Florida is if the various pieces are necessary to address a well-identified crisis. Judge Clark found, and the state's lawyers had conceded, that no such crisis existed. As a result, the entire law was struck down as unconstitutional.

"This was a law that only served the habitually negligent and intentionally reckless," said AAJ lead attorney Robert S. Peck. "Judge Clark found that the law so blatantly violated constitutional requirements that it was unnecessary for her to address the law's other multiple legal flaws."

The law, passed in 1999 and signed into law by Governor Jeb Bush, put severe limitations on the rights of consumers and injured people. Among other things, it established arbitrary rules on the useful life of products, limited the liability of multiple defendants, immunized employers for the intentional harmful acts committed by their employees, and provided lawsuit protections to a number of specific industries, including airplane manufacturers, rental car companies, convenience stores, and owners of property used by others.

The lawsuit challenging the law's constitutionality was filed in December 1999 on behalf of Florida consumer groups, environmentalists, union members, trial lawyers, civil rights groups, and senior citizens. Representation was provided by AAJ's Legal Affairs Department, under the lead of Senior Director Robert S. Peck, and members of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers, led by Jacksonville lawyers W.C. Gentry and Wayne Hogan.

The victory follows successful challenges brought by the AAJ team in Illinois, Indiana, Oregon and Ohio. In addition, the AAJ team won a constitutional challenge decision in a Nebraska trial court over that state's cap on medical malpractice damages, which is now pending in the Nebraska Supreme Court.

An appeal of the Florida decision is expected.

Note: The Orlando Sentinel has two excellent articles on this decision, the first detailing the specifics of the case, and the other about Florida tort reformers' stated intention of rewriting the big tort reform statute as lots of little tort reform statutes.