Oregon Public Broadcasting

The amount of money Washington is paying to settle lawsuits has nearly doubled in the past five years. Yet, a series of proposals to limit Washington’s exposure to litigation failed this year in the legislature.

The effort faced opposition from a lobby group that holds significant sway in Olympia – trial lawyers.

Maybe you can't sue the king. But it's pretty easy to sue the state of Washington or a local government here. In 1961, the state waived a legal principle known as sovereign immunity. Washington also imposes no caps on damages.

And even if the government is only partially to blame in a case, as the deep pocket it can end up paying the bulk of the damages.

So, this year state Representative Deb Eddy, a suburban Seattle Democrat, set out to limit some of that liability. Specifically she proposed additional legal protections for community corrections officers and child welfare workers.

Deb Eddy: "What we wanted to do is to make it clear that as long as they acted in a rational way consistent with state law and with their supervisors' good faith instructions, that they wouldn't be held liable."

Case in point: Eleven years ago the Washington Supreme Court awarded damages to a father who had sued the state. He was barred from seeing his children while investigators looked into sex abuse allegations against him.

One of Representative Eddy's bills would have overturned that precedent and made it clear -- the first duty of child protective workers is to the child, not to the parent.

Eddy also wanted some immunity for the Department of Corrections when an offender on community supervision commits a new crime. Her bills got a hearing, but died in committee.

Deb Eddy: "So, no the problem didn't get solved and sadly it didn't even get tweaked."

Eddy, an attorney by training, blames a powerful Democratically-allied political lobby in Olympia.

Deb Eddy: "For whatever reason no legislation goes through the House of Representatives without the approval of the trial attorneys."

It's a bold allegation: That trial lawyers -- who contributed more than $500,000 to Democratic candidates for the legislature last year -- in essence hold veto power.

Larry Shannon: "It is certainly true and fair to say that we weren't going to go as far as Representative Eddy wanted us to go."

But Larry Shannon, government affairs director for the Washington State Association for Justice, formerly the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, chuckles at the suggestion his organization controls what moves through the House.

Larry Shannon: "I wish we had that kind of authority."

House Judiciary Chair Jamie Pedersen also refutes the idea that trial lawyers must -- in his words - "bless a proposal" before it passes.

Jamie Pedersen: "I just don't, I don't think that's accurate.”

That said, Pedersen acknowledges opposition from the plaintiffs bar is a tough hurdle to overcome.

Jamie Pedersen: "There are some, at least, members of our caucus who are sympathetic to the policy perspective of the trial lawyers."

But he says there was another complication to shielding child protective workers from lawsuits. Conservative groups like the Christian Homeschool Network also opposed it and many Republicans agreed.

Jamie Pedersen: "So it's not possible to have something pass out of committee or out of the House when it has simultaneous opposition from both the trial attorneys and the Republicans."

Pedersen says he expects the issue of limiting lawsuits against the state to come back again next year.

In the end, one tort reform measure did pass the Washington legislature this year and was signed into law by the governor. It protects the state -- or any employer -- from liability when an unauthorized passenger in a work vehicle is injured in an accident.

Meanwhile, Washington is on track to payout $50 million this fiscal year in damages. That's less than the $60 million previously anticipated, but almost twice as much as the state paid just five years ago.