TOPEKA, Kan. (Legal Newsline) — Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt announced March 26 that he has filed a brief with the Kansas Supreme Court arguing that the state’s cap on non-economic damages in civil lawsuits is not a violation of the U.S. or Kansas constitutions.
Schmidt’s office is intervening in a lawsuit between two parties so that he can defend the state’s damages-cap statute. He can do so because Kansas passed a law in 2016 stating that the state’s attorney general must be given notice and must be allowed to appear in court when the constitutionality of a state law is challenged.
“The Kansas Legislature has, as a matter of public policy, limited the amount of non-economic damages a plaintiff may be awarded in a lawsuit,” Schmidt said in a statement. “This is within the authority of the legislature, and courts have historically found that this does not violate the plaintiff’s constitutional rights.”
