In South Carolina, lawyers represent far less than 1% of the state’s total workforce, but they make up nearly 30% of the 170-member S.C. Legislature.
And in the club of 50 lawyer-legislators, those who practice personal injury law or whose law firm colleagues handle those types of cases dominate that group – at least 27 of the 30 attorneys in the 124-member House and at least 17 of the 20 lawyers in the 46-member Senate, The Nerve found in a review of law firm websites, lawmakers’ social media accounts, and online biographies and other reliable sources.
Their influence, which crosses party lines – a total of at least 26 Republicans and 18 Democrats in the two chambers – has been particularly evident in recent years in the debate over reform of the state’s liquor liability laws.
As a group, they played a big role last year in effectively killing a Senate bill that would have, among other things, removed part of a state law that currently allows bars and restaurants to be held responsible for entire verdict awards in drunken driving lawsuits, even if their liability was just 1%.
Another Senate bill, S. 244, which was filed this year, also would remove the 1%-liability provision. The legislation, the main sponsor of which is Sen. Shane Massey, R-Edgefield, who is the Senate majority leader and a defense trial attorney, passed out of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, which included Massey, last week.
After a several-hour hearing on Tuesday, the full Judiciary Committee approved sending S. 244 and a related bill, without any amendments, to the full Senate. The S.244 bill likely will face plenty of proposed amendments on the Senate floor.
Before Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee meeting began, a group calling itself “Reform Insurance Now SC” sent a text message to The Nerve, calling on citizens to urge Sen. Ronnie Sabb, D-Williamsburg, who is not on the committee, to vote against S. 244.
“Senator Ronnie Sabb has always stood up for working families and small businesses – now, he has the chance to do it again,” the text read.
Sabb is a personal injury lawyer whose practice areas include automobile accidents, tractor-trailer wrecks and wrongful death cases, according to his law firm’s website. He was among the group of attorneys who last year successfully voted against ending debate on the Senate liability-reform bill, effectively killing it.
In an analysis published last week, The South Carolina Policy Council – the parent organization of The Nerve – supported removing the 1%-liability provision and more broadly, transitioning to a “pure several-liability” system in which “at-fault parties are held accountable for their actions, but only for their actual share of the culpability,” as proposed under S. 244.
Under the state’s current modified “joint-and-several” liability system, defendants with at least 50% of the fault in civil cases can be held responsible for full verdict awards. And the base liability threshold doesn’t apply to certain defendants, including those whose conduct involved the sale of alcohol – meaning that bars and restaurants named as defendants in lawsuits with as little as 1% liability can be held responsible for entire verdicts.
Bill supporters say changes in liquor liability laws are needed to counter the growing exodus of bars and restaurants facing skyrocketing liability insurance premiums. Opponents contend that the current law, including the 1%-liability provision, helps ensure that victims receive full compensation.
A statewide voter poll conducted last month by the Policy Council showed that 63% of the more than 1,200 respondents statewide supported reforming civil liability laws to require that financial responsibility is distributed based on each party’s proportional share of the fault.
The Nerve first explored the joint-and-several liability issue in a 2022 story in connection with a high-profile, wrongful-death civil case involving once-prominent Hampton County attorney Alex Murdaugh, who later was convicted in a separate criminal case of murdering his wife and son.
Drunken driving collisions have been prevalent in South Carolina in recent years. From 2022 through last year, there were a total of 15,843 alcohol and/or drug-involved traffic collisions statewide, including 7,898 property-damage-only, 6,893 injury and 1,052 fatal crashes, according to records provided last week to The Nerve by the S.C. Department of Public Safety, which noted that the 2023 and 2024 numbers were preliminary.
And that means a lot of potential revenue for lawyers who represent plaintiffs in personal injury or wrongful death cases.
Conflicts of interest?
State ethics law generally bans lawmakers from using their office to obtain an “economic interest for himself, a family member, an individual with whom he is associated, or a business with which he is associated.”
But under what’s commonly known as the “large-class exception” in the law, it isn’t unethical for lawmakers to vote on bills affecting their businesses if the “economic interest or potential benefit could reasonably be foreseen” to equally “accrue to all other members of the profession, occupation, or large class.”
On Feb. 14, 2023, a civil-liability reform bill, S. 533, sponsored by Senate President Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, who is not a lawyer, and co-sponsored by 23 other senators, including Massey, was introduced and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Luke Rankin, R-Horry.
A senator since 1992, Rankin is an attorney whose law firm handles vehicle collisions, personal injury and wrongful death cases, among its areas of practice, according to the firm’s website.
“Luke Rankin's main focus is on personal injury, car wrecks, motorcycle wrecks, tractor-trailer wrecks, wrongful death, and workers' compensation claims,” the website says. “He stands by his philosophy of listening to client needs, creating tailored solutions to meet those needs, and treating each client with care, dignity, compassion, and respect that everyone deserves.”
As originally written, S. 533 would have removed the 1%-liability provision affecting bars and restaurants. Once the bill was referred to Rankin’s committee, it was assigned in March 2023 to a seven-member subcommittee – all lawyers – chaired by then-Sen. Gerald Malloy, D-Darlington, who lost his longtime Senate seat in a close election last year.
Malloy’s law firm handles automobile and motorcycle accidents, personal injury and wrongful death cases, according to the firm’s website. The Nerve’s review found that at least five of the seven original subcommittee members, including current Senate Minority Leader Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, and former Sen. Scott Talley, R-Spartanburg, have ties to the practice of personal injury law.
The bill didn’t move out of the subcommittee in the 2023 legislative session. In January 2024, it was referred to a slightly reconstituted subcommittee made up of seven lawyers, including Malloy, who again was the chairman.
Last March 27, the full 23-member Judiciary Committee passed the bill, though it restored the 1%-liability provision as currently contained in state law. The committee’s membership at the time included 10 senator-lawyers, including chairman Rankin, who either practice personal injury law or have law firm colleagues who do so, The Nerve’s review found.
The bill was set for special order the same day to be voted on the Senate floor. On April 2, the full Senate in a 21-20 vote approved a motion by Massey to table the committee’s amended version, with 16 of the 17 attorneys, including Rankin, who voted on the losing side having ties to the practice of personal injury law, The Nerve’s review found.
But on the next day, the personal-injury-lawyer faction played a significant role in a 23-20 vote to reject a “cloture” motion to shut down debate and take a vote on the bill, which effectively killed it at the time. At least 15 senator-lawyers – eight Democrats and seven Republicans, including Rankin – in that group voted against the motion, The Nerve’s review found.
In a written statement following the vote, which was included in the Senate Journal, Sens. Tom Young, R-Aiken, and Michael Johnson, R-York – both attorneys who voted against ending debate – said in part:
“For weeks, we worked with representatives of the insurance industry and others promoting the passage of S. 533 as originally filed to draft a compromise version that could pass the Senate. … Unfortunately, just prior to the start of debate on the Bill, the proposed compromise version was rejected. Because the cloture vote applied to the original version of S. 533 and not the compromise version that we reached in our extensive efforts, we voted ‘no’ to cloture.”
Under a change in Senate rules effective this year, it will take three-fifths of those present and voting, or 26 senators, whichever is fewer, compared previously to a simple majority vote (24) of the membership, to shut down debate on the critical second reading of a bill, Senate Clerk Jeff Gossett said in a written response last week to The Nerve.
In Young’s law firm, auto wrecks and wrongful death cases are listed among its practice areas, according to the firm’s website. The practice areas in Johnson’s firm include real estate closings, workers’ compensation and will planning, according to its website; Johnson was chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee that moved S. 244 last week to the full committee.
Four other senators who voted against last year’s cloture motion on S. 533 and who have ties to the practice of personal injury law – Malloy; Talley; Dick Harpootlian, D-Richland; and Sandy Senn, R- Charleston – are no longer in the Senate.
But with last year’s elections, the chamber gained five personal injury attorneys, keeping the net total number of lawyers in that group at 17 – currently at least 10 Republicans and seven Democrats, The Nerve’s review found.
It remains to be seen whether the personal-injury-lawyer faction in the Senate will again be successful this year in helping to kill liquor-liability reform legislation.
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Brundrett is the news editor of The Nerve (www.thenerve.org). Contact him at 803-394-8273 or
