To hear trial lawyers and their anti-business enablers tell it, the only thing that prevents Colorado employers from literally chaining workers to their desks is the "right to sue" their dastardly bosses.  In this fantasy world, trial lawyers never bring frivolous lawsuits and fired employees never file dubious claims motivated but grudges against their former employers.

In fact, listening to testimony recently on Senate Bill 72 (sponsored by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, and Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder), the uninitiated could be forgiven for wondering — given the obvious virtue presumed by the bills' supporters — why the sponsors don’t propose a new law that simply accepts employees' claims at face value, dispenses with the inconvenience of a trial, and orders those heartless employers to immediately deposit funds into plaintiffs' bank accounts.

Maybe that’s on their agenda for next year. 

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On March 10, the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted 5-4 to postpone indefinitely (kill) Senate Bill 68 (by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, and Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton) — a bill which CCJL has previously described as "a sledge hammer aimed at Colorado business."

A dream bill for trial lawyers, SB 68 would have eliminated the "public impact test," criteria employed by the Colorado Supreme Court to determine whether an ordinary lawsuit can invoke the Colorado Consumer Protect Act and thereby threatening the defendant with treble damages and plaintiffs' attorney fees.  Had SB 68 passed, virtually any lawsuit against a Colorado business could have included a presumption that an error, oversight or misdeed alleged by a single plaintiff had been replicated innumerable times against the public at large.

Businesses would have found themselves not simply defending against charges of varying merit but risking far more that compensatory damages were they to lose.  Increasing the stakes for businesses would create tremendous leverage for plaintiffs attorneys to coerce defendants to settle even dubious claims rather than risk that a jury would rule for the plaintiff and order the defendant to pay treble damages and attorney costs.

CCJL appreciates the hard work to defeat this bill by our members and allies in the business community and by Andrew Unthank, an attorney at Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell and a participant in CCJL's Legal Advisory Board, for his compelling testimony against SB 68 in the House committee. 

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