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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | May 23, 2022 10:59 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Rob W. Kauffman |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Proposed Constitutional Amendment - Civil Venue |
| I intend to introduce a proposed constitutional amendment to resolve the question of whether the General Assembly may legislate venue of lawsuits in civil cases. The “venue” of a case refers to where – i.e., in which county’s courts – the case may be initiated. While the Pennsylvania Constitution expressly states that the General Assembly shall determine the “jurisdiction” of cases – i.e., which court has the power to hear a case – it is silent on venue. Over Pennsylvania’s history, the General Assembly and the Judiciary have shared this role, with the Judiciary establishing venue generally by rule while the General Assembly has established venue in specific forms of cases by statute. Accordingly, while the Judiciary long ago promulgated rules on civil venue, also existing in harmony with those rules are special statutory venue provisions as varied as those addressing decedents’ estates, juvenile dependency proceedings, human trafficking victim compensation, actions against Commonwealth parties, appeals of private arbitration awards, and many more topics. But tension has been building between the branches in recent years as the Supreme Court’s Civil Procedural Rules Committee has increasingly advocated to overturn a special venue rule for medical malpractice liability lawsuits. The current rule was arrived at through joint action of the branches in the late 1990s and early 2000s to resolve a crisis in medical liability costs so severe that it resulted in health care providers closing or retiring early. The current rule neutrally requires medical malpractice lawsuits to be filed in the county where the medical care occurred. Eliminating this rule could not only tip off a recurrence of the liability crisis that the current rule was established to resolve, but may also inflame conflict between the Judiciary and the General Assembly. In an effort to reinforce comity between the branches, as it existed for decades if not centuries previously, my proposed constitutional amendment will explicitly state that the General Assembly may establish the venue of a civil lawsuit by statute. This will not strip the Judiciary of its general authority to prescribe rules for venue, but it will settle the rising conflict over whether this is a shared area of constitutional authority. Please join me in sponsoring this legislation which will be a step to mending a frayed relationship between the General Assembly and the Judiciary. |
Introduced as HB2660