Proposal could mean less legal costs, liability for contractors

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A bill meant to shield contractors from legal costs and liability got a lengthy hearing on Tuesday, a day after two Republican lawmakers had introduced an amendment that would curtail parts of the proposal.

The bill, Senate Bill 645, sponsored by state Sen. David Craig and Reps. Mark Born and Tom Tiffany, proposes a series of changes to the state’s civil-litigation rules. Most notably for contractors, it would curtail the state’s construction statute of repose, which contractors commonly invoke when defending themselves against personal-injury lawsuits alleging negligent design.

The statute now bars lawsuits involving injuries that occurred more than 10 years after a given construction project had come to an end. Various lawmakers are now trying to reduce that window to six years.

The backers of the proposed change include the Wisconsin Builders Association, which represents homebuilders throughout the state. The Madison-based group provided written testimony at Tuesday’s hearing contending that reducing the window to six years would give builders, who are often defendants in lawsuits, certainty and control over their exposure to liability and reduce the cost of investigating allegations.

However, a pair of Republican lawmakers who are also personal-injury lawyers introduced an amendment on Monday that, among other things, would remove the changes to the construction statute of repose from a counterpart version of the bill: Assembly Bill 773.

State Rep. Ron Tusler, one of the authors of the amendment, could not be reached for comment by deadline on Tuesday. Should the amendment be recommended for adoption by the Assembly Committee on Judiciary and adopted by the full Legislature, it would replace the original version of AB 773.

The proposed revisions aside, the main topic of discussion at Tuesday’s hearing was the bill’s provisions concerning state rules governing class-action lawsuits and discovery procedures, which regulate how lawyers collect evidence in lawsuits.

The proposal calls for placing time limits on depositions and restricting how many depositions can be requested in a particular dispute; and for requiring parties to show a “substantial need” for any electronically stored data they might be requesting, among other things.

Although seemingly unrelated to construction, this part of the proposal could still make a big difference for contractors. Some supporters of the bill have contended the provisions could cause contractors who are involved in litigation to spend less money and time responding to discovery requests.

Those arguments were echoed at Tuesday’s public hearing, which had not concluded by deadline that afternoon. Representatives of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, a group whose members include businesses throughout the state, testified in favor of the bill. Scott Manley, WMC senior vice president of government relations, said the proposed changes would be a boon to businesses big and small.

“We think that Senate Bill 645 presents this committee with a great opportunity to reduce some of the transactional costs associated with lawsuits while maintaining fairness and leveling the playing field for everyone involved,” he said. Follow @erikastrebel