The online resource insurancenews.net covers the American Tort Reform Association’s amicus curiae brief before the Maryland Court of Appeals, which is hearing a case challenging the nature of Maryland’s longstanding liability system. From their coverage:

Joined by groups representing a variety of employers, physicians, and their insurers, the American Tort Reform Association has submitted a “friend of the court” brief to Maryland’s highest court, urging it to uphold its own precedent as well as the long expressed will of the state legislature and 165 years of settled law with respect to the doctrine of contributory negligence.

[ATRA president Tiger] Joyce said his group’s brief cites the 1983 precedent, Harrison v. Montgomery County Board of Education, when the high court again upheld contributory negligence and refused to adopt comparative negligence, ruling that “change was a matter for the General Assembly.” That the legislature had considered such change several times but did not act, the court ruled, is “indicative of an intention to retain the contributory negligence standard.”

The “friend of the court” brief is available online here.