One of my favorite scenes in the modern Christmas classic Elf is when Will Ferrell’s Buddy the elf meets the department-store Santa. Buddy, brimming with excitement, rushes to greet his old friend. But he quickly realizes something is amiss. This guy smells like beef and cheese. Santa doesn’t smell like beef and cheese. The man is a fraud, so Buddy unabashedly confronts him with the famous line: “You sit on a throne of lies!” Co-conspiring parents gasp and children scream in chaos as the beard comes off and the ruse unravels.
It’s a fun moment that, of course, includes a knock-down, drag-out brawl. That brings about thoughts of the Legislature and Georgia’s need for tort reform.
Georgia’s civil litigation system rightly allows those injured by negligence or fault of others an opportunity to seek compensation for economic and non-economic damages. At first glance, it seems fair. However, as in the Santa scene, there’s deception at play. Juries, like the children in Elf, are kept in the dark while almost everyone else is playing a part.
Plaintiffs often present inflated medical bills— so-called “phantom damages”— that don’t reflect the true costs incurred. An $1,800 medical expense can appear as $50,000 in evidence if that was the original bill, even if insurance or other adjustments significantly reduced the amount. Presenting inflated numbers misleads juries into awarding damages far beyond the actual losses.
Juries are deliberately misled
The distortion is compounded by non-economic damages, which are often three to five times the number of economic damages but can reach ten times or more in some areas of Georgia. The players in the courtroom— plaintiff, attorneys, judge, and defense— know the numbers are inflated, yet the jury is deliberately hoodwinked.
This isn’t justice, it is deception.
Courts are supposed to seek truth, not put on theater. But there is strong financial incentive for the plaintiff’s side to keep the fantasy running. That $1,800 cost might be worth $8,000 to $10,000 after all damages are assessed. But if the starting cost is inflated to $50,000 it leads to a settlement exceeding $200,000. Plaintiff attorneys, who typically take 30 percent or more of the award, stand to gain exponentially. Worse, some cases involve more elaborate schemes where lawyers, medical providers and investors conspire to inflate medical bills even more.
Here’s how it works: the attorney refers the client to a cooperative medical provider. Together, they assess the patient’s insurance and litigation potential. The provider inflates the bill and accepts a “letter of protection” in lieu of billing the insurance company. An investor buys the medical bill (at a discount) and files a lien against any settlement. The plaintiff and their attorney then present the court with a “real” bill, giving the appearance of legitimate expenses.
In just about any other context, this would be recognized as fraud. An individual or business submitting a false insurance claim could face criminal charges, and an employee caught inflating expense reports may be fired. Yet in Georgia courts, these practices are normalized, protected by the rules, burdening businesses, insurers, and individuals alike.
Georgia’s courts handle well over 200,000 active tort cases at any time. Many settle based on exaggerated claims, forcing insurers to pay inflated sums or risk unpredictable jury verdicts. These payouts raise costs for everyone, from individuals to businesses, costing hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars annually and enriching a cadre of plaintiff attorneys, medical providers, and investors.
Small businesses such as trucking companies suffer directly. Rising liability insurance premiums, or costs in excess of insurance coverage strain operations, stifling growth and job creation and can lead to business failure. For trucking, these unfair practices are uniquely destructive. Trucking operations have huge exposure to the public every day, and since federal and state laws set coverage requirements, lawyers know the odds of getting a large settlement or jury verdict are strong.
Tort reform solutions
There are solutions. States like Texas and Florida have enacted reforms requiring plaintiffs present evidence of actual incurred expenses rather than inflated figures. This doesn’t prevent legitimate victims from receiving fair compensation but ensures awards are grounded in reality—not based fiction. At the very least, defendants should be allowed to ask, and juries should be allowed to know if the costs are real or if insurance was ignored in order to help increase profits for lawyers or investors.
The Georgia Legislature should act. It should require accountability and transparency to ensure plaintiffs get fair compensation and to ensure defendants likewise receiving fair treatment, only paying real, honest claims. The current system sits on a throne of lies, and it’s time to stop pretending.
Ed Crowell is the CEO & President of the Georgia Motor Trucking Association.
