Why We Need Tort Reform
The American Tort Reform Association ranks Georgia as the most challenging legal environment in the country.
The iconic Manuel’s Tavern on Atlanta’s eastside has long-served as a go-to for politicos, journalists and police, as well as neighborhood regulars, since longtime DeKalb leader Manuel Maloof opened it in 1956. It’s an Atlanta institution known for good food, good drink and good times.
One night’s good times in October 2022 turned really bad. A regular patron – someone who came often enough that staff knew his name – paid for his dinner and walked out into the back parking lot, near where around 15 customers were sitting outside.
The gentleman saw a man moving from car to car in the parking lot trying to open doors. He raised the alarm to call 911, which other customers had already done, and then he physically confronted the would-be thief, who brandished a gun and shot him in the torso. The shooter hopped into his getaway car and left.
Customers and staff, including one with military battlefield first-aid training, rushed to save the victim, but tragically, he died in the parking lot. The murder remains unsolved.
Even though the tavern had no history of violent crime, it did not act negligently, and staff played no role in the decision to confront the gunman, the victim’s family filed a lawsuit.
“The family suffered a tragic loss, but what I struggle with is, how did we contribute to it?” says Brian Maloof, the restaurant’s second-generation owner.
Photo credit: Basanta Mondal
Knowing the deck was stacked against them under Georgia law, Manuel’s Tavern’s insurance company settled the case. Maloof isn’t allowed to give details of the settlement, but it’s cost his business a lot. The restaurant struggled to find a provider to cover it, and once it did, Maloof had to pay dramatically higher prices for less coverage.
“It’s really hard to run a business when you have this looming cloud over you because you can’t afford insurance,” Maloof says. “It’s a vicious cycle because you have to raise prices.”
It’s a conundrum facing Georgia-based Russell Landscaping, too, says owner Teddy Russell.
When one of the company’s trucks knocked the rearview mirror off a car near the intersection of I-285 and I-75, the insurance company paid out $200,000 to the driver, though an investigation found “zero impact” to the body of the car. In another case, a man on a cellphone ran into the back of a parked company truck with red cones around it. He died and the insurance company settled with the family.
Russell says cases like this have caused his company’s insurance to double in a year’s time, to approximately $3.6 million from $1.8 million – despite decades with no claims until recently. He says friends in national landscaping companies were told by their insurance company to limit their footprints in Georgia because of the drastic impact on insurance rates.
Russell Landscaping isn’t facing these problems at its other locations in Florida, South Carolina or Tennessee. Georgia needs to take steps to protect small businesses or it will soon lose its coveted position as the No. 1 state for business, Russell says.
That ranking matters greatly to Gov. Brian Kemp. He sees it as a third-party validation of his economic development record. Perhaps that’s why Kemp is leading the charge on reforms that will restore rationality to our jackpot jury system. Over the fall and summer, Kemp held roundtables with small business owners, healthcare providers and the larger corporate community that includes global brands like Aflac, Coca-Cola, Delta, Home Depot, UPS and others.
Georgia enacted serious tort reforms back during the 2000s, but court rulings over the years have chipped the teeth of those laws. In one of those cases, state Supreme Court Justice Shawn Ellen LaGrua warned that businesses faced with increased exposure “will cease operations or raise their prices to offset the costs of additional security measures.”
She continued: “I would urge our General Assembly to consider these issues as they institute laws imposing premises liability on business in this state.”
The American Tort Reform Association ranks Georgia as the most challenging legal environment in the country. Too many Georgia courts are allowing too many ridiculously disproportionate awards. If it doesn’t get reined in, insurers will continue to pull out of the state, coverage prices will skyrocket, and Georgia will see fewer big economic development wins.
Restoring balance and sanity to our judicial system should top the governor’s 2025 legislative agenda to safeguard not only our business climate but also consumers paying costs for someone else’s jackpot. 
