Sovereign Immunity cap increase being considered
Sadly, there are two bills moving in the House and Senate that would once again place a considerable unfunded mandate on local government. HB 1107 and SB 2060 significantly expand the current waiver of sovereign immunity of governmental entities operating under the current waiver of sovereign immunity caps of $100,000 per indivdiual claim/$200,000 per incident.
These bills place a much greater burden on government entities and as a result taxpayers. Below is an outline of some of the concerns of these bills:
1. Significant Increase to Liability: The bills (or strike everything amendments) will increase the current waiver of liability from $100,000/$200,000 up to $250,000/$1,000,000 (up to a five-fold increase in liability exposure).
2. Doubling the Total Caps: Under current law, the state, its agencies and its subdivisions can be held liable for no more that $200,000 collectively in liability that arises out of a single incident. The bills (or strike everything amendments) will separate the liability of the state and its agencies with a cap of $1,000,000, and also separate the liability of subdivisions with a cap of $1,000,000. Therefore, if an accident involved negligence by a state agency and negligence by a subdivision in the same incident, the combinded potential waiver of sovereign immunity would no longer be $200,000 under current law, bu tcould be up to $2,000,000 ($1,000,000 on behalf of the state and its agencies, and $1,000,000 on behalf of subdivisions). (Up to a ten-fold increase in liability exposure).
3. Uncertainty in the Insurance Market: Because sovereign immunity is a fairly settled area of the law, there is a good amount of certainty in terms of the risk involved. The bills create new uncertainty in terms of risk and will have the effect of increasing insurance premiums. Additionally, any governmental entities that are self-insured would be left particularly vulnerable under the cap increases.
4. Circumventing the purpose of Sovereign Immunity: One of the reasons governmental entities, and particularly local governments, need sovereign immunity is so that they can carry out their police powers and provide for the health, safety and welfare of the general public without the constant threat of lawsuits putting taxpayer dollars at risk. The bills provide uncertainty as to when sovereign immunity would apply and have the potential to create many unintended consequences, such as increased numbers of lawsuits brought against governmental entities, increased liability insurance premiums for governmental entities, increased liability insurance premiums for governmental entities, proliferation of frivolous lawsuits against governmental entitis, or a potentially inflated pay-out on claims and an increase in the overall cost of lititgation for governmental entities.
AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT IS THE TAXPAYERS WHO HAVE TO PAY FOR THESE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES!
Thank you to Kraig Conn, Florida League of Cities for providing this information.
