Tillis to unveil new Tort Reform Panel

New NC House Speaker Thom Tillis offered a preview tonight of his speech to the NC Chamber of Commerce’s Government Affairs Conference Tuesday in Raleigh. He says his message will be that the GOP’s main focus is still jobs and the economy – and he’ll underline that by unveiling a new House Select Committee on Litigation and Tort Reform, with new emphasis on regulatory reform, too.

“We’ve mentioned in the past that that’s a way short of cutting taxes – we’ll allow the temporary taxes to sunset – but short of cutting taxes, other ways that we can take the costs out of doing business,” Tillis said. “And we think that we can do that through an agenda on tort reform and regulatory reform. That’ll be the primary focus.”

Pressed for details, Tillis said the House Select Committee will probably focus on medical malpractice and other issues concerning the business community. “I’m not a trained legal person. I’m a business person. What I’m trying to do is get the right people in a room to say, how would you layer in tort reform that makes sense? What can we do in this session? What can we do in the following session?”

Tillis pointed out that the General Assembly has been talking about tort reform for a long time while accomplishing very little. “I think when you see the leadership that we’ll announce and the members of that committee, [you’ll see] we’re serious about getting something done.”

To hear his unedited comments, click the audio link at upper left.