Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed a bill that would have put a $1 million cap on awards for non-economic damages, such as pain and suffering, in lawsuits stemming from commercial motor vehicle accidents.
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, meanwhile, has signed into law a bill capping non-economic damage awards in CMV-related accidents at $5 million.
The trucking industry has pushed to limit damages in accidents involving trucks, citing nuclear verdicts in the tens of millions of dollars that spike insurance rates or make it difficult to get motor carrier coverage at all.
In a statement on Friday, Evers called the $1 million cap arbitrary and said “the law should redress a party’s injury, not repress an injured party.” The bill also violates the U.S. and Wisconsin constitutions’ guarantees of due process, he said, and would conflict with existing state law, inviting “continuous litigation.”
Doug Morris, who works in government affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said Evers doesn’t grasp the impact of massive damage awards on the trucking industry and on individual truckers.
“The governor has failed to understand the abuse of the system by trial lawyers and harm caused to the industry, especially small-business truckers, by allowing unlimited verdicts,” Morris said in a statement to FreightWaves. “Truckers are essential workers, not banks.”
The Wisconsin State Senate passed the cap on nonmonetary damages with mostly Republican support. The State Assembly, which is also controlled by Republicans, passed it on a voice vote. Evers is a Democrat.
In testimony in January backing the legislation, Republican state Rep. Rick Gundrum cited an American Transportation Research Institute study which found that verdicts of greater than $1 million in truck crash lawsuits had risen on average from $2.3 million in 2010 to $22.3 million in 2018.
The Wisconsin Association for Justice, an attorney organization, blasted the proposed damages cap as “an attack on Wisconsin citizens’ ability to obtain justice after experiencing catastrophic injuries and death on Wisconsin roadways.”
In West Virginia, the American Trucking Associations on Tuesday heralded the Legislature’s overwhelming passage of a $5 million cap on non-economic damages related to CMV accidents and praised the governor for signing the bill into law. ATA President and CEO Chris Spear said the reform “ensures justice and fairness drive accident litigation outcomes, not profits.”
Traci Nelson, West Virginia Trucking Association president, also lauded the measure.
“With approximately 33,890 West Virginians employed in the trucking industry and 84 percent of our communities relying solely on trucks for goods transportation, this legislation is critical for our state’s economic well-being,” Nelson said.
The state Senate passed the bill 32-1. It passed in the House of Delegates by a vote of 81-15. In 2021, West Virginia lawmakers enacted a reform making a plaintiff’s nonuse of a seatbelt admissible as evidence, a measure that Indiana approved in March of this year.
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