As your representative for Georgia’s 156th House District, I’m excited to share the latest updates from under the Gold Dome. The focus of last week was Georgia tort reform. However, with only a few days remaining in this year’s session, we are also working to advance as much meaningful legislation as possible to deliver real results for our communities. With just two weeks remaining, I want to highlight important measures we addressed during the tenth week of session.
Advancing Georgia Tort Reform
This week, the House passed Senate Bill 68, a significant step toward comprehensive tort reform in Georgia. This legislation aims to balance our civil justice system by addressing several critical areas:
- Limiting Recovery of Attorney’s Fees: SB 68 introduces restrictions on the recovery of attorney’s fees. It seeks to prevent excessive legal costs that can burden both businesses and individuals. Currently, attorneys may collect fees twice. This measure would eliminate that. By capping these fees, the bill helps ensure that legal costs remain reasonable and do not disproportionately benefit attorneys at the expense of those involved in litigation.
- Updating Seatbelt Evidence Admissibility: Previously, courts often excluded evidence of whether a person was wearing a seatbelt during an accident. SB 68 changes this by allowing seatbelt use to be considered in civil cases. This shift ensures that all relevant facts are available to jurors when determining fault and damages. This promotes personal responsibility and fairer legal outcomes.
- Reforming Premises Liability: Under current law, property owners can be held liable for crimes committed by third parties on their premises, even if they had little reason to anticipate them. SB 68 revises this standard. It requires clear and convincing evidence that prior similar incidents occurred and that the owner knew about them. This change helps protect responsible property owners from frivolous lawsuits while still holding truly negligent ones accountable. P
- Adjusting Medical Expense Damages Calculation: Instead of awarding damages based solely on the original billed medical costs, SB 68 ensures that damages are based on the actual amounts paid for medical treatment. This prevents inflated awards and makes sure that compensation accurately reflects real medical expenses.
- Allowing Bifurcated Trials: The bill allows courts to separate trials into two distinct phases—one determining liability and the other assessing damages. This approach helps prevent jurors from being swayed by emotional appeals about damages before establishing whether a defendant is actually responsible. It also streamlines the trial process and ensures fairer verdicts.
These reforms are designed to create a more balanced legal environment, ensuring fairness for all parties involved. By addressing these issues, we aim to reduce frivolous lawsuits and promote a more predictable legal climate. This is essential for economic growth and stability. The purpose of this bill is not to limit justice. It is intended, however, to make lawyers bring better cases to court and limit the frivolous ones.
It passed the House – barely. After going back over to the Senate for an agree vote. It was immediately sent to the Governor’s desk.
Ensuring Dignity in Pay
On Tuesday, the House passed the Dignity in Pay Act (Senate Bill 55). This was a bipartisan effort to ensure fair wages for individuals with disabilities. This legislation prohibits the Georgia Department of Labor from offering exemptions to minimum wage laws for individuals with disabilities and prevents employers from using federal certificates to pay these workers below the minimum wage. This initiative ensures equal opportunity and compensation for employees with disabilities, recognizing their valuable contributions to our state’s industries.
Protecting Our Service Members
The House also passed Senate Bill 109 with bipartisan support, providing essential protections for Georgia’s active-duty service members and their families. This bill prevents group life insurance policies from excluding or limiting liability for the death of an insured active-duty service member unless the death is directly or indirectly caused by war or a related act. For example, if an active-duty service member is injured in a car accident while at home or stationed within the United States, their life insurance claim cannot be denied solely because they are on active duty but not in active combat.
This bill ensures that our dedicated service members and their families receive the support and benefits they deserve, honoring their sacrifices for our state and nation.
Rural Development Support
The House passed SB 13 which permits the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority to provide loans to municipalities or authorities for the supply, distribution, and storage of natural gas. This bill also facilitates the transition from aboveground to underground electrical lines. This would reduce the risk of storm-related outages and improving energy reliability. Moving electrical lines underground not only enhances infrastructure resilience but also helps protect against weather-related damages, ultimately reducing long-term maintenance costs.
Additionally, SB 13 supports investments in expanding natural gas availability, particularly in rural areas. These are the very areas where access to affordable energy remains a challenge. By improving opportunities for energy infrastructure expansion, this measure promotes economic development and ensures that communities across Georgia have reliable power sources.
This bill passed the House. However, the vote board is telling. With the exception of two unfortunate rural Democrats voting NO, all the NO votes were from metro or suburban Democrats. Apparently, they think they know what rural Georgia needs better than we do!
Additional Legislative Actions
We also passed several other Senate bills during the 10th week of the session:
- Senate Bill 6: Allows for drug analysis equipment to be used to determine whether a controlled substance or its packaging has been altered.
- Senate Bill 58: allows for the licensing and operation of emergency organ transport vehicles as ambulance services to transport necessary personnel, organs, tissue, or medical supplies for time-critical organ transplant procedures
- Senate Bill 154: Updates state law by adding the words “or its successor” after references to the U.S. Department of Education and replaces outdated language by referencing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
- Senate Bill 252: Allows municipalities with populations of 300,000 or higher to lease out, grant easements over, or convey property to an independent school system within their boundaries, provided the property conveyed is replaced with other property of equivalent or greater value.
- Senate Bill 276: Introduces new obligations for third-party health insurance payers. This would impact medical assistance claims, prohibiting them from withholding payment for healthcare services already rendered. It would also require insurers to respond to state inquiries about claim statuses within 60 days.
To look up these and any other legislation under consideration in the Georgia General Assembly, visit the official website here.
Visitors to the Capitol
My son made his annual college Spring Break trek to the Capitol last week. I encourage young people, whether they are voting age or not, to visit the Gold Dome whenever possible.
Dignitaries from the Wexford County Council, Ireland, and the Georgia Southern University Wexford Campus made their way to Atlanta last week.
Looking Ahead
As we approach the final stages of the 2025 legislative session, my colleagues and I remain committed to advancing legislation that benefits our community and the state. With only two weeks remaining until Sine Die, every moment counts as we work to deliver meaningful results.
I encourage you to stay engaged and informed about the legislation that affects our community and your family. You can access committee schedules, livestreams, and the status of bills on the Georgia General Assembly’s website. As always, thank you for allowing me to serve as your representative. Your trust and support are invaluable as we strive to make Georgia a better place for all.
For more updates and information, please visit my website at LeesaHagan.com.