Court Opinion

ID: 9558410
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:09:04.914893+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:09:12.926884
License: Public Domain

McGREGOR, Judge,
specially concurring:
I concur in the holding that A.R.S § 12-2602 impinges on the fundamental right to. recover damages for injuries because it requires all plaintiffs, even those bringing claims that fall within the realm of common knowledge, to present expert testimony and thereby violates the Equal Protection Clause. The broad language of the majority opinion, however, suggests that any certificate of merit statute will violate the Arizona Constitution. I believe we need not go so far, and I am not prepared to do so.
Arizona’s Constitution, through article 18, § 6, emphatically assures the right to bring an action to recover damages for injuries. But that protection does not extend to frivolous claims since, by definition, those claims do not assert a cause of action and thus are distinguishable from valid causes of action. That distinction lies at the heart of the policies reflected in Rule 11, Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, which permits the court to impose sanctions against lawyers and parties who bring frivolous claims, and A.R.S. § 12-349, which permits the court to assess damages and award attorney’s fees against lawyers and parties who bring claims without substantial justification. Under both the rule and the statute, we look to the time a party files an action to determine whether sanctions should be imposed. Although we could not sanction a party or her lawyer for pursuing the party’s constitutional right to bring a cause of action to recover damages, courts can and do impose sanctions in actions brought without basis or for improper purposes. It thus seems evident that a certificate of merit statute that prevents only *326frivolous actions from being filed would not violate article 18, § 6 of the Arizona Constitution.
As the majority notes, a number of states have enacted certificate of merit statutes. Those statutes, however, include protections missing from A.R.S. § 12-2602. See, e.g., Cal. Civ. Pro.Code § 411.35 (West Supp. 1997); Colo.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 13-20-602 (West Supp.1997); GA.Code Ann. § 9-11-9.1 (Michie 1993); Haw.Rev.Stat. § 672-2.5 (1993). Whether similar provisions would resolve the problems the majority sees in Arizona’s certificate of merit statute should await a consideration of specific provisions in the context of a particular statute.