Delaware House Bill 254 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Completed Legislative Action
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-3)
Status: Passed on July 1 2014 - 100% progression
Action: 2014-07-01 - Signed by Governor
Text: Latest bill text (Engrossed) [HTML]

This legislation is party neutral and does not provide an advantage to either side in a lawsuit. It assists judicial economy, reduces the time and cost of litigation, and shortens the time that jurors have to serve on a given case because they would no longer have to hear unnecessary long and complicated testimony. For many years, the inflation rate for future lost wages and/or medical expenses has exceeded the economic discount rate, which means that the present value of such future lost wages and/or medical expenses is equal to or greater than their current cost. Therefore, it is unnecessary to require expensive expert testimony presented by an economist which simply repeats a well known fact to a jury or court. Other jurisdictions including Pennsylvania, have arrived at this conclusion. Kaczkowski v. Bolubasz, Supr. Ct. Of Pa., 421 A.2d 1027 (1980), (“Moreover, the Court finds as a matter of law that future inflation shall be presumed equal to future interest rates with these factors offsetting. Thus, the Courts of this Commonwealth are instructed to abandon the practice of discounting lost future earnings. By this method, the Court is able to reflect the impact of inflation in these cases without specifically submitting this question to the jury.”). And, also Gillingham v. Consol Energy, Inc., 51 A.3d 841 (2012), Pa. Super., Lexis 1061 at *54 (Pa. Super. 2012) (“...a plaintiff is not required to present expert testimony on past and lost future earnings in order to sustain a verdict...A plaintiff can base his proof in that regard on his own testimony.” (Emphasis added)). The result of this legislation will be that parties in litigation will no longer be required to spend thousands of dollars per case on obtaining expert witness testimony from economists about a matter that has been well established and accepted by Courts and the economic community, and has not been contested by either Plaintiffs or Defendants in Delaware. Other benefits of passing this legislation include reducing the amount of time Judges and jurors will have to listen to unnecessary and lengthy testimony from an expert witness about matters that are not in dispute. Furthermore, attorneys will no longer have to take pretrial depositions of experts about future medical expenses and future lost wages, and they also will not have to request, review and pay for unnecessary detailed financial reports. The legislation is party neutral and does not give any advantage to one party or another. This legislation also gives any party the option to present admissible expert opinion in either support of or in opposition to a claim for future lost wages and/or future medical expenses.

An Act To Amend Title 10 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Courts And Judicial Procedure.

Rep. Rebecca Walker [D]	Sen. Margaret Henry [D]	Rep. Gerald Brady [D]	Rep. James Johnson [D]
Rep. John Mitchell [D]	Rep. Stephen Smyk [R]	Sen. David Wilson [R]	Sen. Harris McDowell [D]
Sen. Gary Simpson [R]	Sen. Bryan Townsend [D]

2014-06-05 - Senate - Senate Third Reading (Y: 19 N: 0 NV: 1 Abs: 1) [PASS]
2014-05-15 - House - House Third Reading (Y: 39 N: 0 NV: 0 Abs: 2) [PASS]

Date	Chamber	Action
2014-07-01	House	Signed by Governor
2014-06-05	Senate	Passed by Senate. Votes: Passed 19 YES 0 NO 1 NOT VOTING 1 ABSENT 0 VACANT
2014-06-04	Senate	Reported Out of Committee (JUDICIARY) in Senate with 4 On Its Merits
2014-05-28	Senate	Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate
2014-05-15	Senate	Assigned to Committee in Senate
2014-05-15	House	Passed by House of Representatives. Votes: Passed 39 YES 0 NO 0 NOT VOTING 2 ABSENT 0 VACANT
2014-05-15	House	Amendment HA 2 - Passed in House by Voice Vote
2014-05-15	House	Amendment HA 1 - Stricken
2014-05-15	House	Amendment HA 2 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
2014-05-13	House	Amendment HA 1 - Introduced and Placed With Bill
2014-03-26	House	Reported Out of Committee (JUDICIARY) in House with 3 Favorable, 4 On Its Merits
2014-03-13	House	Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis147.nsf/2bede841c6272c888025698400433a04/0ced84787dc0d63b85257c99005d144e?OpenDocument
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis147.nsf/vwLegislation/HB+254/$file/legis.html?open
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis147.nsf/EngrossmentsforLookup/HB+254/$file/Engross.html?open
Roll Call	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis147.nsf/7712cf7cc0e9227a852568470077336f/6423468d50145d4d85257cd900721a95?OpenDocument
Roll Call	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis147.nsf/7712cf7cc0e9227a852568470077336f/839a35c24dee35c585257cee006932a9?OpenDocument