Score one for the trial lawyers.
But it may be a short-lived celebration.
A bill that would forbid defense lawyers from deflecting blame for injuries they caused in negligence lawsuits cleared its first committee stop Wednesday over a drumbeat of criticism from businesses, medical providers and insurers.
But three Republicans on the House Constitution and Civil Law Committee voted against the bill trial lawyers are calling the "False Accusations" act.
Trial lawyers say the bill is needed after the ground rules for assigning blame where changed in companies' favor last year by Republicans and Jeb Bush last year.
Now, trial lawmakers can't ask a company 50 percent at fault for an injury to pay any more that half the damages at trial.
In return this year, the plaintiffs' bar would also like to prohibit defendants from further reducing their liability through a common practice known as the "empty chair," where they argue that someone else who isn't being sued was partly responsible.
Republican Rep. Mitch Needelman, a Melbourne Republican carrying the bill, says it's only fair to stop defendants from a blame-shifting game that was caused by the now-abolished "joint and several liability" legal doctrine.
But business groups, like tort reform guru William Large with the Florida Justice Reform Institute, say there's "no proof, and no need" for the change.
And with a mixed, 5-3 endorsement from its first committee stop, the bill will definitely draw more consternation at future stops and the House floor, where business groups, insurers and doctors hold tremendous influence among ruling Republicans.