Editorial: Raising the damage cap

Monday, Feb. 19, 2007 | 7:29 a.m.

County and city governments across Nevada are opposing a bill introduced in the Legislature that would double the $50,000 cap on damages awarded to people who win lawsuits against government entities.

Sen. Terry Care, D-Las Vegas, sponsored the legislation that would raise to $100,000 a damage cap that has been the same since 1979. The increase, Care recently told the Associated Press, still is less than the $130,000 the cap would be if it were adjusted for inflation.

Nevada first allowed compensation for damages caused by government agencies or their employees in 1965, when the cap for such awards was set at $25,000. Lawmakers raised the cap to $35,000 in 1977 and to its current level of $50,000 two years later. Municipalities routinely oppose raising the amount, arguing that large judgments could debilitate their local budgets.

It is true that local government budgets - and the taxpaying residents who support them - shouldn't be held hostage or bankrupted by huge legal settlements. But government entities and their employees sometimes cause damages that $50,000 can't begin to cover. Care cited the example of a 2006 collision in which a speeding Nevada Highway Patrol cruiser slammed into another car on Interstate 15, killing four people inside. When considering such cases, the $50,000 figure "is an obsolete number," Care told AP.

While no amount of money can compensate for the loss of a loved one's life, $100,000 can go much further than $50,000 in paying hospital bills or repairing property damage. Lawyers aren't going to get wealthy from $100,000 lawsuits. But residents who suffer injuries or other damages because of the mistakes by government agencies or their employees could get some much-needed help.