In her capacity as legislative co-chair for the Maryland Defense Counsel (MDC), Goodell DeVries’ K. Nichole Nesbitt recently appeared before the Judiciary Committee of the Maryland House of Delegates to testify in opposition to a bill that would triple Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages for civil cases involving “catastrophic” injuries. MDC, an organization of civil defense trial attorneys across Maryland, opposed the bill on numerous grounds, including that it would undercut the public policy behind the cap, is not necessary in light of the fact that economic damages in civil cases are uncapped, and is unworkably overinclusive as drafted. Ms. Nesbitt testified alongside numerous other opponents of the bill, including the claims executives from Maryland’s top health systems, whose hospitals and health care providers would be hit hardest from the cap proposal. Ms. Nesbitt’s testimony was recently quoted in Maryland’s legal publication, The Daily Record. The position taken by Ms. Nesbitt and her colleagues was successful; the bill did not pass.
