At the State House

The SC Senate is tentatively scheduled to vote on the two Workers’ Compensation Commissioners appointed by the Governor. 

These appointments are somewhat controversial and are sure to be debated, if the vote does come next week.  The Governor’s actions in the last several month to direct the Workers’ Compensation Commission to adopt the American Medical Association’s guidelines for injury claims has angered trial lawyers, inside and outside the SC Senate.

Appointee, Mr. Sam Painter is an attorney who has extensive workers compensation legal experience for corporations. He is not favored by the trial lawyers.  The other appointee, Mr. Avery Wilkerson, is mayor of the City of Cayce, SC. He is an insurance executive. His approval appears to be more likely than Mr. Painter’s at this time.

House Bill 4549, House Speaker Bobby Harrell’s highway funding bill has moved from the House Ways and Means Committee to the House floor and is awaiting pivotal second reading. The bill was amended in committee with the first year’s funding going to the State Infrastructure Bank and subsequent years’ funding going to the SCDOT.

House Democrats as well as rural legislators are expected to bring several issues up during debate on the House floor.  The House of Representatives are not meeting next week; they typically take the week after reporting the budget out as a spring break.  H. 4549 will likely be debated when the House returns the week of Mar. 24.

Senate Bill, S-80, has been discussed in the Senate Judiciary Committee and is on the Senate calendar for second reading. The bill deals with individuals on private property without permission. 

I have been informed by the SCSPLS leadership, this bill may be advantageous to surveyors because it takes away one of the reasons surveying bills introduced in the past have not been successful.  Land owners claim their reasons for not wanting surveyors to have access to their land without permission is that they are liable for any accident the surveyor may have on the land. This bill holds land owners harmless if someone is on their land without permission.

Also, a bill defining expert witness has been returned to a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee at the request of Chief Justice Jean Toal.  The Supreme Court is going to review for possible amendments the Court’s rules regarding expert testimony. The recommended changes to the Court Rules appear to accomplish the intent of the expert witness bill, which was introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee.