Miss. Gov. Barbour Begins ‘Tort Tour’

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour was wasting no time in telling national business leaders across the country about Mississippi’s newly-passed tort reform legislation.

Gov. Barbour met this week with corporate leaders and media outlets in New York and Washington to officially announce the civil justice legislation that reportedly makes Mississippi a more attractive place for industries to locate.

“In recent years, Mississippi has gotten a bad reputation in national business circles as a place where employers are unfairly targeted with frivolous lawsuits. This reputation led to national publications calling Mississippi a ‘judicial hellhole’ and hurt our job creation efforts,” said Gov. Barbour. “With our recent passage of meaningful tort reform, I want to tell job-creators across America that our scales of justice are now in balance. It is time for them to come and take another look at Mississippi as a place to locate,” he added.

After legislators failed to pass tort reform during the 2004 Regular Session that ended May 9, Gov. Barbour called a special session to address tort reform that began May 19. After two weeks of work, House and Senate leaders agreed on civil justice legislation that caps non-economic and punitive damages, protects “innocent sellers” and reforms Mississippi’s venue laws. The new law is to take effect Sept. 1, 2004.

“I appreciate the Legislature helping pass tort reform. This is a major achievement for Mississippi, but we don’t have time to rest on our laurels. If we want to create jobs in Mississippi, we need to start spreading the news now,” added Gov. Barbour.