Opponents of a proposed constitutional amendment that would cap jury verdicts against medical care providers announced Wednesday that they have filed paperwork allowing them to raise money to defeat the proposal in the Nov. 8 general election.
The Committee to Protect AR Families filed its statement of organization with the Arkansas Ethics Commission on Tuesday.
The committee's directors include Martha Deaver, president of Arkansas Advocates for Nursing Home Residents, which was founded in 1995.
"Our organization believes that justice will be thrown out the door for nursing home residents and their families if the initiative and the constitutional amendment is passed," Deaver said.
The proposed amendment would limit trial attorneys to one-third of any damages won in suits against medical care providers and set a limit of $250,000 for noneconomic damages such as pain and suffering in lawsuits filed against health care providers.
The Health Care Access for All ballot-question committee said it submitted petitions containing 131,687 signatures in support of the amendment to the secretary of state's office on Friday.
The secretary of state's office is reviewing validity of the signatures, Chris Powell, an office spokesman said. Proposed amendments require 84,859 valid signatures to be placed on ballot.
The ballot-question group received $250,000 for its signature gathering from The Arkansas Health Care Association, which represents nursing home and long-term care facilities.
A damage award in a negligence lawsuit against a Greenbrier nursing home played a key role in derailing a circuit judge's campaign for the state court of appeals in 2014.
Michael Maggio, a former judge in the 20th Judicial Circuit, pleaded guilty to a federal bribery charge in 2015 after admitting that he lowered a jury's $5.2 million judgment against a nursing home to $1 million in exchange for contributions to his appellate campaign.
Maggio is free while his conviction is on appeal to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.
Metro on 07/14/2016