Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2004 | 11:21 a.m.
A group of business, medical and construction interests launched a campaign Monday to try to turn voters against two initiatives the group says mislead the public.
Questions 4 and 5 on the November ballot both appear to target issues with broad appeal -- stopping frivolous lawsuits and lowering insurance premiums.
But members of the Nevadans Against Frivolous Lawsuits group said Monday that the measures are a bait-and-switch aimed at disrupting tort reform in the state.
Ultimately, they said, the measures will increase health insurance costs, drive more doctors out of the state and raise the cost of newly constructed homes.
Kara Kelley, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the initiatives, called the promises in the ballot measures an "illusion."
"Small businesses in particular would suffer if these initiatives passed," she said.
Backers of the initiatives retorted that they really are under fire by the insurance industry, which is seeking to block "meaningful insurance reform."
Gail Tuzzolo, a consultant for the People for a Better Nevada, which is pushing the measures, said in a press release that her group does not see insurance premiums as "a game."
"We're about rate relief, pure and simple," she said.
Questions 4 and 5 could block Keep Our Doctors in Nevada, another initiative that would amend a state statute to cap settlements in medical malpractice suits at $350,000, unless the state gives doctors insurance relief by February 2007, Tuzzolo said.
Backers of Questions 4 and 5 felt there should be speedy relief for doctors if people are going to give up their rights to settlements, she said.
"We ask citizens to give up their rights so that doctors get relief," she said. "If doctors don't get relief why should citizens give up their rights?"
A People for a Better Nevada release said that the real concern for Nevadans should be Question 3 on the ballot -- also known as Keep Our Doctors in Nevada.
The measure would cap all lawsuit settlements at $350,000 in an effort to lower insurance premiums for doctors in the state. Opponents of that cap say it would prevent courts from being able to serve justice as jurors see fit and that it would allow bad doctors to avoid full payment for their malpractice.
Several business members of the chamber say, however, that Questions 4 and 5 on the ballot would not only block the Keep Our Doctors in Nevada effort but also would erode previous efforts to control lawsuits settlements.
"Nevada would become the lawsuit capital of the world," Kelley said.
Ron Kline, president-elect of the Clark County Medical Society, said that rapidly growing Nevada already is losing more doctors than it attracts.
Without the changes outlined in Keep Our Doctors in Nevada, he said, the situation will get worse.
"For the good of medicine in Nevada, Questions 4 and 5 should be defeated," he said.
Steve Holloway, executive vice president of the Associated General Contractors, said he signed petitions in support of Questions 4 and 5 because he was attracted by their initial promises.
"I personally fell for the bait-and-switch tactics of the trial lawyers," he said.
He didn't know that Question 5 erodes the progress the state has made in controlling construction defect suits, he said.
The amounts that construction companies pay for liability insurance have stabilized in recent years, he said, but many companies still pay up to $800,000 a year for insurance.
Also, he said, construction companies spend about 30 percent of their payroll on health insurance costs, which he said will continue to rise without tort reform.
"They are going to shut our industry down," he said.
The group's first ad campaign launched this week, featuring trial lawyers laughing as they plot the ballot measures.
"Questions 4 and 5 repeal legal reforms and remove limits on personal injury lawyer fees," the announcer says.
Scott Craigie, a spokesman for the group, said he was unsure how much the Nevadans Against Frivolous Lawsuits would spend on the campaign. But it's clear that both sides of the issue have deep pockets.
People for a Better Nevada, a group known to have ties to the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association, largely funded the "Yes on Questions 4 and 5" committee, which spent more than $325,000 to get the frivolous lawsuit and insurance rollback initiatives on the ballot.
A Nevada doctor filed a complaint against People for a Better Nevada, saying it hadn't specifically outlined who donated money to the group. Tuzzolo said she would give those details in January but is following the law by simply stating that the initiatives are backed by People for a Better Nevada, a nonprofit corporation.
The group just recently made the ballot after a long court battle, and Tuzzolo said she had to file a last-minute finance report.
"I'm not hiding that attorneys are supporting this effort -- they are," she said. "And doctors and hospitals and insurance companies are supporting the other side. So what?"
Tuzzolo said she is unsure if People for a Better Nevada will launch its own ad campaign, saying her group doesn't have the resources now.
"The amount of money they have is extraordinary compared to the amount of money we have," she said.
The Keep Our Doctors in Nevada political action committee reported $2.5 million in contributions and had spent $1.3 million by the end of August, according to its report.
Alrus Consulting, run by Craigie, filed a report as a political action committee and reported $18,000 in contributions, including $8,000 from the Nevada State Medical Association and $8,000 from several insurance companies.
The Nevada Medical Association political action committee reports $7,700 in contributions, mostly from doctors.
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