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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Bill in Assembly Seeks to "Remove Price Tag From Justice" Say Supporters

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Monday, March 16, 2009   

Denver - Justice shouldn't come with a price tag. That's the message from supporters of a bill being heard in the Colorado state assembly this week that would do away with most "cost bonds" that a judge can order a plaintiff to obtain to cover all court costs should he lose the case.

Denver attorney Natalie Brown represented a man who brought a medical malpractice suit in the death of his wife. She says medical bills had put the man into debt and he was forced to choose between dropping the case and using his children's college fund to pay for the bond.

"He had to make the really difficult decision that he could not do that, so the case was dismissed, and he never got his day in court."

She adds that the case was thrown out even though medical experts had certified it as having merit.

Brown says getting rid of cost bonds is about leveling the playing field.

"If every person who's going to bring a lawsuit has to come up with 10, 25, 50 thousand dollars, what kind of court system is that? That's a court system for the wealthy, that's what it is."

Brown says the burden of cost bonds is particularly onerous in medical malpractice cases, because often the plaintiff can't afford the bond precisely because of the medical bills associated with the case.

"The idea that individuals could be thrown out of court, that's just not fair, and this bill really is about fairness."

Brown says in recent years insurance companies and other well-funded defendants have been forcing the issue of cost bonds as a way to have cases dismissed. Opponents of the bill say cost bonds help discourage frivolous lawsuits that clog up the courts. The measure would still allow for cost bonds of up to $5,000 for out-of-state plaintiffs.


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