Sponsor Statement for CSSS HB 293(JUD)

"An Act Relating to Collections of Settlement Information in Civil Litigation"

Last session Tort Reform legislation was enacted into law. One section of the Tort Reform law requires the collection of settlement and other data in certain categories of civil litigation cases. Those provisions now appear in AS 09.68.130.

The necessity of four minor "housekeeping" amendments is now apparent. The first makes mandatory the reporting of such data by attorneys and persons representing themselves. Apparently some individuals interpret the data collection provisions of the Tort Reform law to be optional, and not mandatory. This amendment makes clear the mandatory nature of those reporting requirements, in order to ensure that accurate statistics will be compiled. Information must be submitted within 30 days after thesettlement or final resolution of all covered cases.

Second, the effective date as to the collection of settlement and other data is changed to make clear the reporting requirements apply prospectively to all applicable civil litigation cases which are settled or finally adjudicated on or after the effective date of this bill, which is the date HB 293 is enacted into law. The reporting requirements are not retroactive to the effective date of the Tort Reform law, or any other earlier date.

Third, the bill makes clear that the reporting requirements arise only after any final appeals as to cases which are fully litigated. Similarly, if any one of multiple plaintiffs or multiple defendants, or third party defendants settle out of litigation early, the obligation to submit the required data arises as of the date the case is "finally resolved as to that party".

Fourth, the Alaska Judicial Council has recommended that certain non-tort cases be added to the types of cases already excluded from the reporting requirements. The Tort Reform legislation excluded divorce and other categories of cases from the reporting requirements. This amendment adds several other categories of cases which should be excluded in Section 1 of the bill. See the accompanying sectional analysis.

Last updated February 24, 1998