Tennessee Governor Amends Bill to Limit Lawsuit Damages

Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has amended a bill to limit lawsuit damages, drafting a change to HB2008/SB1522 that would exempt catastrophic cases from the caps he wants to impose on most awards.

The original bill would place a $750,000 cap on non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, while punitive damages would be limited to $500,000. The proposed amendment adds a “catastrophic loss provision” that would increase non-economic damages to $1, 250,000 in “instances of a spinal cord injury resulting in paraplegia, hemiplegia, quadriplegia, amputation, substantial burns and the death of a parent leaving minor children,” according to a summary of the proposal.

In addition, Haslem’s amendment would change the awarding of non-economic damages from a “per occurrence” basis to a “per injured plaintiff” basis. It also would eliminate any limitation on such damages “in instances when the defendant committed an act that would constitute a felony or was under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs at the time the injury occurred.”