Lawsuit reform bill ‘doesn’t benefit any S.C. citizen,’ attorney says
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - An attorney who specializes in construction defects says there’s a section in a new tort reform bill introduced at the State House that should cause concern for South Carolinians, especially homeowners.
Bill S.244 is designed to amend the South Carolina Code of Laws for tort reform, which refers to limiting the types of lawsuits and the amount of liability that can be awarded in civil trials. The new bill largely focuses on the percentages of fault across multiple industries, but attorney John Hayes says the bill’s Section 6 takes it a step further.
Hayes, an attorney who specializes in construction defects, says the way it’s written lessens the standards that any builder has to follow.
Trump backtracks on DOGE firings of nuclear workers at places like SRS
The Trump istration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal nuclear weapons workers in places like the Savannah River Site in the CSRA.
“What they’re trying to do is shorten the amount of time that a homeowner can go after a general contractor for building basically a defective house,” Hayes says.
All homes and buildings in South Carolina are required to be built according to what’s called the building code, which is the minimum standard. As South Carolina law stands now, homeowners have eight years to sue a general contractor for defects to their home with a few exceptions.
But Hayes says a lot of these defects show up much later. The way this new section words, it would make it much harder to bring any kind of lawsuit against a builder, he says.
1 woman dead after a house fire in Jackson
One woman is dead after a house fire on Sunday afternoon in Jackson, according to officials.
“What they’re trying to do with this act is to say, well, even if you violate the building code, which is a law, if you violate the building code you can’t really go after a builder to pursue them in court unless you’ve had significant personal injury or property damage,” Hayes says.
Hayes says this section of S.244 doesn’t benefit anybody except for insurance companies and corporate builders.
Doorbell camera captures terrifying gunpoint attack at Ga. home
Chatham County police are looking for three people who they say held a woman at gunpoint and shot a man inside a Chatham County home.
“This bill not only hurts homeowners but businesses, municipalities, colleges, hospitals,” Hayes says. “If this new law was in place the state and tax payers would have had to pay for the repairs instead of the companies that built the defective buildings. This applies to office buildings, banks, you name it. The bill only helps corporate builders and insurance companies at the expense of South Carolina citizens and business owners.”
But Sen. Sean Bennett, who represents Charleston and Dorchester Counties and serves as the Senate Ethics Committee chairman, is a sponsor of the bill and says that’s not necessarily true.
MORE FROM NEWS 12
South Carolina: Latest from the State House
- S.C. bill would ban people from smoking in cars with kids inside
- New bill could ease property taxes for S.C. boat owners
- S.C. lawmakers consider enacting online protections for children
- S.C. attorney general warns against ICE ‘mass resistance’
- S.C. Republicans want to ban DEI practices at state agencies
- South Carolina lawmakers push for hands-free driving bill
- South Carolina lawmakers float bill to regulate vapes
“I think it looks after, first of all, it puts in place and reemphasizes what’s already in statute, which is an eight-year look back period on defects of homes,” Bennett says. “It comes back and and tightens up that eight-year window, unless there’s some gross negligence in play there and they can still sue for those sorts of instances with some other stipulations in place. If there is a situation where those insurance companies need to come back and pay those people, we are certainly going to fight for them and and make sure that they’re getting their due process.”
Bennett says this bill, in general, looks after all parties involved in every industry including home building, manufacturing, the alcohol industry, and trucking. He says everybody is going to be improved by the bill and he believes he has the of the Senate for it to .
Amid egg crunch, these CSRA grocery stores are limiting purchases
Grocery stores in the CSRA and across the country have started rationing eggs amid an ongoing shortage that has caused the price of eggs to skyrocket.
But Hayes isn’t convinced this bill was written with the best interest of South Carolinians in mind.
“This is about giving more profits to insurance companies and corporate builders and it’s at the expense of South Carolina homeowners who need that protection,” Hayes says. “That’s why we have these protections in there is to protect the health and safety and financial well-being of these homeowners. To deprive them of that is just to me very scary.”
Bill S.244 is in a Senate subcommittee but Hayes expects it to be voted on in the coming weeks.
Hayes also recently went up to Columbia to testify before the Senate subcommittee.
Copyright 2025 WRDW/WAGT. All rights reserved.
