CLE: 2023 Legislative Legal Landscape

Possibilities for initiative petition reform in the 2023 session dominated the virtual Jan. 12 Legislative Legal Landscape discussion.

Missouri Lawyers Media Senior Reporter Scott Lauck and Husch Blackwell Strategies General Counsel for Compliance Amy Blunt moderated the discussion from 4-6 p.m.

Serving as keynote speaker, Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft shared what he considers the most optimal initiative petition reform if it does come to pass this year.

“I don’t see a signature threshold raise as the right way to go,” Ashcroft said. “I could actually see proposals where the signature requirement is lessened, because then it truly is more about the people of the state, but then you actually have a vote threshold that’s higher.”

Panelist Sen. Barbara Anne Washington, D-Jackson County, was against restricting initiative petitions in any way.

“At the end of the day, some of the issues [are what] Missouri citizens have asked us as legislators to do, and they have waited for decades for us to act on it,” Washington said. “And these initiative petitions have become their last recourse for their voices to be heard.”

Missouri Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis City, Sen. Barbara Anne Washington, D-Jackson County, Rep. Robert Sauls, D-Independence, and Rep. John Black, R-Marshfield, joined the discussion as panelists. The panelists agreed that not much is left for tort reform except for the potential of decreasing the statute of limitations from five years to two years. Washington also noted asbestos procedure litigation as another opening for tort reform.

Missouri Lawyers Media sponsors this event.