• Legislative Improvements
• Judicial Evaluations
• Kansas Chamber Legal Institute Activities

Judicial Evaluation - Shining a Spotlight on Judicial Decisions
Last week Ebert was joined on a Kansas media tour by Neil Coughlan, J.D., president and Executive Director of The Judicial Evaluation Institute for Economic Issues, in Washington, D.C.

"We explained the rationale, evaluation and process, prior to releasing results of a Chamber-commissioned study of the Kansas Supreme Court's judicial decisions later this summer," Ebert said. "We also met with some of our Federation partners, and interested Chamber members to discuss this important analysis.

"The objective of the judicial evaluation is to shine a spotlight on the powerful members of the Kansas Supreme Court by assessing how their decisions affect institutions, quality of life, and prosperity," Ebert said.

The Judicial Evaluation Institute for Economic Issues is a Washington, D.C.-based research institute formed to educate the public on the importance of evaluating judges' performance - especially decisions that affect the spread of liability.

Judges are evaluated from a liability policy point-of-view because the enormous expansion of civil liability in the American courts over the past forty-five years inhibits growth, discourages enterprise, and changes for the worse the way people conduct their personal and professional lives. Judge-made law in the state courts has created most of this liability expansion and many of its destructive features.

Members of the Supreme Court are being evaluated on decisions in six areas of law that affect civil liability: employment, insurance, medical malpractice, product liability, workers' compensation, and other liability lawsuits.

The purpose of the study was to provide decision-makers, citizens and businesses with meaningful information about the effects of the Kansas Supreme Court, the state's highest-level judges, on their lives, their businesses and their property. Specifically, the study is designed to determine whether the justices have a history of helping to stop the expansion of liability or to expand liability.

The evaluation of the Kansas Supreme Court will be followed by the Kansas Court of Appeals. Results of both evaluations will be released later this summer.

Kansas Chamber Legal Institute
The Judicial Evaluations are commissioned by The Kansas Chamber Legal Institute, the state's leader in the fight to bring greater fairness, efficiency, and predictability to the Kansas civil justice system by educating the public, the media, and policymakers about the need for a balanced civil justice system.

The Kansas Chamber Legal Institute is a division of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce and Industry Education Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)(6) organization affiliated with The Chamber.

The Chamber's Legal Institute strongly advocates for tort reform and convenes conferences and seminars that advance understanding of the civil justice system as it works to improve the balance, predictability, and overall fairness of the system.

The Institute also prepares and files amicus briefs on important business issues that impact the state's business climate.

In addition to Judicial Evaluation, other issues the Legal Institute tackles include:

• Legal Consumers Bill of Rights
• Jury Service Reform
• Sound Science Reform
• Prejudgment Interest Reform
• Punitive Damage Reform
• Collateral Source Rule Reform
• Appeal Bond Waiver
• Product Liability Reform
• Contingency Fee Reform
  

Activity in the 2005 Legislature
Senate Bill 75 provides immunity from civil lawsuits for manufacturers, producers, sellers, marketers, or advertisers of food, based on claims about weight gain, obesity and associated health claims. This bill passed with strong margins in both the Senate and the House. The Chamber and a number of its pro-business partners worked for passage of this legislation designed to curtail future frivolous lawsuits. This bill becomes law on July 1, 2005.

Workers Compensation Legislation
House Bills 2141 and 2142, which both improve the work comp system in Kansas, also become law on July 1.

House Bill 2141 makes it easier for employers to defend themselves in workers compensation cases when employees who have been drinking or using drugs get hurt on the job.

House Bill 2142 is another workers' comp bill that essentially clarifies the date of an accident for injuries that occur over a long period of time.

"Passage of these bills is extremely significant. For the first time in 10 years, progress is being made to level the playing field in work comp cases," Ebert said.

Unemployment Compensation
Senate Bill 108 redefines the current law's definition of misconduct to include failing or refusing to take a drug or breath alcohol test and stipulates that the results of these types of tests could be admissible as conclusive as long as the employer had requested the test in connection with a written policy stating that the test was a condition of employment.

The bill also amends the Kansas unemployment compensation law to include federally-mandated amendments and encourages the state to detect and punish tax evasion and tax fraud more effectively. SB 108 also becomes law July 1.