Non-Economic Damage Cap Upheld In Maryland
July 29, 2009
Like many states struggling to prevent their courthouses from becoming ATM machines for trial lawyers, Maryland has imposed a fair and reasonable cap on non-economic damages on tort claims. Since the day it was enacted back in 1986, the trial bar has been eager to overturn it, so far without success. The latest failure came earlier this month when Maryland’s Court of Appeals (the state’s equivalent of a Supreme Court) ruled that the statutory cap applies to claims brought under the state’s Consumer Protection Act, not just common-law torts, according to an article in the Maryland Daily Record.
Invoking state Consumer Protection Acts has been a favorite tactic of enterprising plaintiffs’ lawyers eager to boost jury awards and, it goes without saying, their legal fees. Maryland’s high court deserves credit for seeing through this ploy - with a unanimous decision, no less.
Caps on non-economic damages are an effective safeguard against abusive lawsuits and an important protection for the business community. While they ensure that injured plaintiffs are fairly compensated, they curb grossly excessive, Powerball-sized verdicts that allow trial lawyers to walk away with multi-million (or even billion) dollar fees.