S.C. Senate passes tort reform bill after 4 weeks of debate

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A bill that aims to make South Carolina’s legal system fairer has cleared a huge hurdle after months of fights, weeks of debate, and many hours of closed-door negotiations.

Supporters believe the legislation will ultimately help South Carolinians save money on insurance costs, while others argue it is a helping hand for insurance companies and not their customers.

After four weeks of debate and several hours of backroom discussions, Wednesday, senators finally approved their tort reform bill Wednesday night, officially passing it Thursday.

“I’m not sure the word is ‘compromise,’ but this is an understanding, and there were a group of fellow senators in the room who helped make this happen. This is what we believe is the best result,” Sen. Michael Johnson, R – York, said before the adoption of the bill’s final, key amendment Wednesday.

18-year-old arrested after allegedly making multiple false active shooter calls

An 18-year-old has been arrested after allegedly making multiple false active shooter calls to 911.

The Senate tort reform bill concerns how to determine who is at fault in lawsuits and how much plaintiffs are due.

Supporters claim their aim is to fix an unfair and broken civil justice system.

“It’s going to affect individual South Carolinians on auto insurance. It’s going to affect small businesses. It’s going to affect restaurants and bars. It’s going to affect large industry. It’s going to affect people everywhere across South Carolina, so I think there are solutions that are being offered there,” Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey, R – Edgefield and the bill’s lead sponsor, told reporters after its passage Thursday.

The bill’s future has been murky over the course of the last month, and similar legislation imploded in the Senate last year.

But ultimately this bill won over an overwhelming majority of the body, which passed it in a 35-7 vote.

Two fires in Aiken County are still burning, but contained

According to the South Carolina Forestry Commission, a perimeter has been constructed around the fires in Vaucluse and New Holland to help contain them.

“What has happened is, more businesses, more restaurants and small businesses, have gone out of business because of the impacts of our current law,” Massey said in explaining the differences between last year’s outcome and this year’s. “But you have others that have gotten engaged and let legislators know what the impacts have been on them. That’s had a big impact here.”

The seven votes against the bill all came from Democrats, who claimed this bill benefits insurance companies and not victims or small businesses.

“We had no data from insurance companies that these changes would make premiums go down,” Sen. Tameika Isaac Devine, D – Richland, said.

“It wasn’t tort reform. It was insurance reform,” Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D – Colleton, added.

12 On Your Side Investigates: Follow up on Ga. speed camera bills

Lawmakers at the Georgia state capitol continue to hear testimony on automated school zone speed cameras around the state.

The bill now heads to the House of Representatives, which has taken a much narrower approach on this matter by passing legislation this year that only focuses on the bar and restaurant facet of this issue.

Earlier this month, Gov. Henry McMaster stood alongside senators in support of tort reform legislation.

In a post on X on Thursday, the governor called the passage of this bill “great news,” saying it was “a wonderful example of leadership, determination, hard work, and collaboration.”