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2004 Budget Session
The Wyoming Constitution, Article 10, Section 4, prohibits the Legislature from enacting laws that would limit the amount of damages to be recovered by citizens in civil actions.
The Wyoming Legislature has periodically considered amending this portion of the Wyoming Constitution to allow the Legislature to limit damages in tort (personal injury) cases. Tort reform efforts in 1995, 1996, 1997 and most recently, 2003, all failed.
To amend the Wyoming Constitution, both the Senate and House of the Legislature must pass identical joint resolutions on the subject of the amendment by a two-thirds majority in each chamber.
If the joint resolution passes, then the amendment must be submitted to a vote of the people at the next general election. In that election, the amendment must pass by a majority of those voting in the election.
This year, the Legislature limited its tort reform attention to medical malpractice cases, but gave this topic plenty of attention. Governor Dave Freudenthal initially proposed a constitutional amendment (HJ 2) to allow the Legislature to limit compensation for non-economic losses suffered by victims of medical malpractice. A mirror resolution, SJ 5, was introduced in the Senate. A second constitutional amendment (SJ 2) proposed setting up a health care errors commission that would compensate victims of medical errors in exchange for the right to sue health care providers who injured them. Yet a third proposed constitutional amendment was proposed in HJ 11, to allow the Legislature to require alternative dispute resolution or review by a medical panel before a person would be allowed to file a lawsuit for medical malpractice.
Numerous other bills were also introduced during the legislative session that related either directly or indirectly to the same topic. Several bills addressed medical malpractice insurance rates in various ways, while others focused on accessibility of health care in rural areas of Wyoming and how to entice doctors to stay and to continue to offer high risk specialties such as obstetrics. The constitutional amendments and other bills are described in detail under each bill number.
Of the 13 bills and four resolutions that were either directly or peripherally related to the topic of tort reform, medical malpractice insurance, and accessibility to health care in Wyoming, one resolution (HJ 11) and four bills (SF 29, SF 34, SF 42 and SF 45) were ultimately passed by the Legislature. The four bills that were passed were related to accessibility of health care in Wyoming. None of the bills that related to tort reform or medical malpractice insurance reform or regulation were ultimately passed.