JACKSON - House and Senate leaders were to resume discussions today on whether some accord can be reached on business liability legislation.
Leaders of both sides huddled Tuesday after the Senate passed 34-10 - and for the third time - a bill to protect business from lawsuits.
Senators said they hoped by including language the full House passed to protect banks and small lenders from lawsuits, the other chamber would be more likely to pass it.
The Senate was to convene at 10 a.m. today and the House at 2 p.m.
House Speaker Tim Ford, D-Baldwyn, suggested Tuesday that lawmakers take a break to allow Senate and House committee members to work on the bill.
"If we don't have anything to vote on, I would think it would be very appropriate to suggest that we go home, recess the House and Senate and let folks on the committees work. Then, when we get something, we can call the membership back in," Ford said.
Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck was noncommittal. Tuck said she and Ford have talked about that proposal.
The Legislature has been in special session since Sept. 5. On Oct. 7 lawmakers passed a medical malpractice reform bill, which they had haggled over for a month.
As of Tuesday, the special session had cost $1.07 million, although taxpayers saved $324,791 in September when lawmakers forfeited their out-of-session monthly checks.
The bill passed Tuesday by the Senate is almost identical to legislation passed twice previously by that chamber and then killed in the House. The bill has a punitive damages cap of $5 million.
The House has passed legislation with a much higher punitive cap. The House bill would cap punitive damages at 10 percent of a company's net worth.
The Senate bill, like the House bill, caps the amount of damages awarded by juries to people who might have been the victim of fraud or misinformation by a lending institution on a loan of $20,000 or less.
Business liability reforms have been supported by Mississippi businesses, which cite the state's reputation for large jury awards.
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