Show Up and Fight Back

We urge you to contact your state senator and demand that they oppose Senate Bill S.244. We cannot let our lawmakers sell out the people of South Carolina to pad the profits of Big Insurance.

We must stand together, demand that senators vote NO on Senate Bill 244, and make it clear:

We will not allow billion-dollar insurance companies to rig the system in their favor!

The insurance industry and big business are mobilizing to ram this bill through the Senate floor next week—and they want no opposition.

If we don’t fight back NOW, this bill will pass—and the victims of negligence, corporate misconduct, and even criminal acts will pay the price.

What Does Senate Bill 244 Really Do?

❌ Shields negligent corporations, hospitals, trucking companies, and bad actors from full
accountability.
❌ Lets insurance companies pay victims LESS while they rake in RECORD profits.
❌ Makes it harder for South Carolinians to get justice when they’ve been harmed.
❌ Bails out billion-dollar insurers like GEICO, State Farm, and Berkshire Hathaway.

This is NOT “reform.” It’s a massive giveaway to corporate elites and the insurance industry.

SHARE THIS NOW with your family and friends and mobilize! We need to pack the Statehouse and show our lawmakers that South Carolina stands for justice, not corporate bailouts and a justice system rigged to benefit big insurance companies and corporations.

Senate Bill 244 would reduce the legal rights of every person harmed by negligent, wrongful acts of another in all types of bodily injury and medical malpractice cases.

If passed, the bill would:

 HELP POOR INSURANCE COMPANIES by allowing them complete freedom to wrongfully deny and delay valid claims for 90 days before a lawsuit is filed or for 10 months after a lawsuit is filed. (Section 13.)

 HELP POOR INSURANCE COMPANIES by preventing them being held liable for wrongly denying or delaying payment of valid claims if the insurer is just “merely negligent.” Instead the policyholder harmed by the insurer’s wrongful denials and delays would have to prove some higher legal standard. Insurance companies would be free to act as carelessly as they wish when processing policyholders’ valid claims. Current law, which has been in force in South Carolina for at least a century, says that an insurance company can be held liable when it acts negligently. (Section 13.)

 HELP POOR INSURANCE COMPANIES by letting them turn the tables and accuse the policyholder of not acting in good faith by having the audacity to make a claim –giving insurance companies with unlimited resources another weapon to train on unsuspecting policyholders. (Section 13.)

 HELP POOR INSURANCE COMPANIES increase profits by eliminating the requirement that uninsured and underinsured motorist vehicle policies cover punitive damages. Uninsured and underinsured policies provide coverage to the injured person when the at-fault driver either does not have insurance or has insufficient insurance. Punitive damages are awarded when the jury concludes the at-fault driver should be punished, e.g., when the at-fault driver operated a car while drunk. Current law requires such policies to cover punitive damages. (Section 9.)

 HELP WRONGDOING CORPORATIONS by letting them shift blame to a company or person who is not even in the courtroom and not a party in the case – thereby reducing what the wrongdoer has to pay in money damages. The bill would give defendants an “empty chair defense” – the right to blame an unknown company or person which is not even present instead of the actual, wrongdoing defendant sitting in the courtroom. Current law allows defendants to bring other parties into a lawsuit if they wish, but wrongdoing companies and insurers want the ability to escape liability by blaming an invisible, silent ghost which cannot speak for itself. (Section 1.A.)

 HELP BARS AND RESTAURANTS WHICH SERVE AN INTOXICATED PERSON ESCAPE LIABILITY by asserting the injured or dead passenger
knowingly got into a car with an intoxicated driver. Current law already says that the intoxicated driver himself cannot sue the bar or restaurant which over-served him. The bill would make it difficult or impossible for an adult passenger to sue the wrongdoing bar or restaurant which over-served the intoxicated driver. (Section 2.A.)

 HELP NEGLIGENT OR WRONGDOING DRIVERS ESCAPE LIABILITY by asserting that the injured person should be blamed for injuring himself because he was not wearing a seat belt. Current law says that whether the injured person wore a seat belt is not admissible in a trial. The bill would make such evidence admissible at trial. (Section 7.)

 HELP NEGLIGENT OR WRONGDOING DOCTORS AND HOSPITALS ESCAPE LIABILITY by providing that the current statutory cap on money damages for physical pain and suffering and emotional distress would apply – except when the doctor or hospital either intended to harm the patient or is convicted of a crime in connection with the patient’s care. The bill would mean the current statutory cap on damages – which already severely limits money damages – likely would apply in practically every case, further reducing the money damages which the wrongdoing doctor, hospital or their insurance company must pay to the injured patient. Current law says that the statutory cap does not apply when the doctor or hospital is grossly negligent or reckless, engages in fraud or misrepresentation or destroys medical records. (Section 12.)

 HELP NEGLIGENT OR WRONGDOING DOCTORS ESCAPE LIABILITY by defining the legal term “occurrence” in medical malpractice cases to further limit money damages that may be awarded to a patient injured by the negligence of a government-employed doctor or government-owned hospital. The bill seeks to redefine the term so that there would only be one “occurrence” even when there were multiple acts of negligence by multiple medical providers. (Section 11.)

 HELP NEGLIGENT OR WRONGDOING DEFENDANTS ESCAPE LIABILITY by the complete elimination of joint and several liability. The current law of
comparative negligence already provides that an injured person who is 50.1% or more negligent cannot recover a single dime from the wrongdoing defendant. (Section 1.A.)