Liability

More than 172,000 nursing home residents died of covid. In lawsuits, some families who lost loved ones say they were misled about safety measures or told that COVID wasn’t a danger in their facilities.

The bill would have added the term “unborn child” to the state’s wrongful death statute, allowing parents to sue if a wrongful act causes the loss of a pregnancy.

The bill would allow parents to sue for damages in the death of an unborn child. Though bill sponsors say it's not abortion-related, attempts to make that clear in the text have so far failed.

Even in states where laws protect minors’ access to gender-affirming care, malpractice insurance premiums are keeping small and independent clinics from treating patients.

The bills would strip children of patients who die from neglect of the right to claim anything more than economic damages, tighten the rules around expert witnesses and exempt passive investors from liability.

Lawmakers last year passed a measure to help shield hospitals, nursing homes and other providers from lawsuits related to the coronavirus. The measure was set to expire March 29.

Under the proposal, public and private colleges and universities would be shielded from lawsuits stemming from campuses being shut down during the pandemic and students being forced to learn online.

A decision by House Judiciary Chairman Daniel Perez to shelve without discussion five amendments proposed by Democrats caused many leaning toward supporting the bill to back away.

The Judiciary Committee spent more than two hours debating the bill and four amendments before voting 7-4 along party lines to move it to the Commerce and Tourism Committee.

‌Representatives of hospitals,‌ ‌physician‌s ‌and‌ ‌long‌-term‌ ‌care‌ ‌facilities say ‌the‌ ‌Legislature‌ ‌needs‌ ‌to‌ ‌make‌ ‌changes‌ ‌to‌ ‌protect‌ them‌ ‌from‌ ‌a‌ ‌potential‌ ‌flood‌ ‌of‌ ‌lawsuits‌.