Legislative Report Session 2000 Legislative Wrap-Up by Bruce M. Plaxen


Bruce M. Plaxen serves as Vice President of MTLA and is the Chair of the Legislative Committee. He is also a member of the advisory committee to the MTLA-PAC. His practice concentrates in personal injury, workers’ compensation, premises and products liability, medical malpractice and automobile negligence. He is a partner in the firm Plaxen & Adler in Columbia and may be reached at 410- 730-7737 or by email at: bplaxen@hotmail.com.


It has often been said that those that


enjoy sausage or the Law should never watch either being made. Based on the legislative session that was just completed, I fully understand that old axiom to be quite true. In fact, I think I’ll take my chance with sausage. I have a better chance of digesting the ingredients. The 2000 legislative session was a


wild, unpredictable roller coaster ride. I responded to more emergencies and was thrown more curve balls this year than the


three previous years combined while I served


as Vice Chair and Chairman of


the Legislative Committee. I had to call on our members quite frequently for help, and each time the members responded quickly and decisively. MTLA’s year-old listserv was not anticipated to be a legis- lative tool but it proved to be very helpful. We entered the 2000 legislative ses- sion with a very ambitious agenda. The legislative team re-wrote certain bills in an effort to diffuse the opposition and gain


passage of those bills. As reported in pre- vious legislative columns, I believe it is no longer enough to simply say, “Don’t hurt us.” It is time to pass important substan- tive changes in the law. While Comparative Negligence failed to get out of committee, two other bills that received little support at all in past years were re-worked and gained consid- erable support this year. Our effort to abrogate Parent-Child immunity received substantial support because the Chairman


4


Trial Reporter


Spring 2000


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