Sovereign and Governmental Immunity Report Released  

The Joint Legislative Budget & Finance Committee released a report yesterday on Limitations on Liability under Pennsylvania’s Sovereign and Governmental Immunity Laws. The report is due to recent court decisions that questioned the whether the current damage caps on the commonwealth’s and local government liability are sufficient and urged the General Assembly to consider changes.  

The report found that the current local government liability cap of $500,000 is sufficient for over 99 percent of claims against local government entities reviewed by the committee. Only 1% of claims resulted in payouts from $250,000 to $500,000. 

The report makes several recommendations, including that the caps remain as they are for non-catastrophic claims and that the caps be increased only for catastrophic claims and medical expenses for non-economic damages based on the consumer price index since 1978. In addition, the report recommends that local governments report their insurance carrier for property and liability coverage using DCED’s municipal statistics database. To read a one-page summary of the report, click here. For the full report, click here.