Dave Boucher

USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

A bill the sponsor says is aimed at curbing frivolous lawsuits against Tennessee could dissuade people from filing claims, including sexual harassment suits, against the state, in the opinion of a Nashville Democrat and a leading workplace discrimination attorney.

This law change would specifically apply to people suing a state employee over sexual harassment claims, noted Tennessee House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Stewart. The Nashville Democrat said the legislation would make it harder than ever for people to seek legal protection in the event they are harassed by a state employee.

“At a time when the Attorney General is tasked with a wide-ranging sexual harassment investigation, it is entirely inappropriate that the Attorney General is also seeking to pass a law that will, for the first time, threaten interns, lobbyists and others working in and around the Legislature with potentially devastating sanctions for pursuing sexual harassment claims,” Stewart said in a statement.

The bill is needed to protect state employees, Attorney General Herbert Slatery argued in a statement.

"The proposed legislation says if (i) the employee is sued individually for acts or omissions in the normal course of performing his or her duties, and (ii) the state employee successfully defends the lawsuit, attorneys’ fees and court costs would be paid by the losing party," Slatery said in the emailed statement.

"Under those circumstances public servants like school teachers, correctional officers, state troopers, and transportation workers should not have to risk their assets and credit during years of litigation."

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Right now, if a person sues a state agency or state employee for something related to their employment with Tennessee, and that person loses, there's no law that requires that person to pay legal costs and fees. But the bill, brought by House Civil Justice Chairman William Lamberth, R-Cottontown, would require the person who filed the lawsuit to pay for those costs and fees if the suit is dropped, dismissed or found to lack merit.

"Someone who has a lawsuit who has merit, and there’s evidence to support it, should file their lawsuit and go forward," Lamberth said.

Lamberth said he's worked with Slatery's office for months on the bill, and it doesn't have anything to do with the Attorney General's current investigation. Slatery and a specially created House committee are investigating the "ongoing situation" surrounding Rep. Jeremy Durham after a Tennessean investigation found three women who said they had received inappropriate text messages from Durham's phone.

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The bill is supposed to dissuade someone lacking evidence from suing the state in an effort to get a settlement, and to encourage earlier decisions in the legal process on whether the person is suing an employee in their official capacity or the employee's state agency, he argues. Slatery also said it doesn't discourage someone from suing a state employee who isn't acting in his or her official capacity.

But those workers already have protections in the event they're sued, said Heather Moore Collins, a Brentwood-based attorney and president of the Tennessee Employment Lawyers Association. It's already a challenge to win any workplace discrimination lawsuit, even if the case has merit. Outcomes for jury trials are notoriously tough to predict, she said: anything from an off-day in court to jurors not liking a client's clothes could overshadow the facts of a case.

She said she tells all her clients that, if they lose, they could have to pay up to $10,000 in legal costs; that tends to cover what the opposing side may have paid for copies, depositions or similar costs.

The price tag associated with attorneys fees is significantly higher, however. In some cases, Collins said it could top $100,000.

"It would completely kill the process. We would be stepping back to pre-1964," Collins said, referencing an era before modern Civil Rights protections. "You might as well forget assault and battery. It’s absurd, it’s just absolutely absurd."

The legislation is set for discussion Thursday morning on the House floor. The Senate version of the bill is still going through the committee process.

Reach Dave Boucher at 615-259-8892 and on Twitter @Dave_Boucher1.