Chalk up a win for California businesses pushing for tort reform.
Assembly Majority Leader Dario Frommer, D-Glendale, earlier this month inactivated a bill that could renew lawsuits targeting businesses because he feared it wouldn’t win enough votes in the Assembly.
Business groups cheered the move on Assembly Bill 528, though many expect the bill to resurface as early as next year.
AB 528 opponents contend the bill partly would roll back Proposition 64 by allowing unharmed plaintiffs to sue companies for alleged environmental violations.
Proposition 64, which voters passed last November, blocks unharmed plaintiffs from suing for alleged business code violations under Business and Professions Code 17200.
Proposition 64 was a reaction to aggressive law firms that critics say shook down small businesses under the 17200 code by threatening or filing scores of lawsuits.
“(AB 528) is an attempt to reopen shakedown lawsuits, to reverse part of Proposition 64,” said Sen. John Campbell (R-Irvine), who was one of the most vocal opponents of 17200-based lawsuits.
For more on this story, see the June 13 edition of the Business Journal.
