Well, the Missouri Supreme Court has certainly done its part for the news cycle today with an array of decisions.
Here's a quick taste of what happened, and links to our separate stories so you can dig in to find out more about each.
“This is going to set off a powder keg of uncertainty in the professional liability insurance market. To be candid, it just conjures up ominous specter of a lawsuit crisis like the one the gripped the state 10 years ago.” - Tom Holloway, with the Missouri Medical Association
KCUR's Elana Gordon gives us the full story, and the personal case behind it, via the link.
Here's the laundry list of issues addressed in this part of today's action: payday loans, increasing the minimum wage, Missouri's state tobacco tax and the settlement of a nearly 4-year-old case involving trash haulers in St. Louis County.
ALSO: The high court ruled on the constitutionality of the state auditor to write financial summaries for ballot initiatives - the items that tell voters the financial cost of a proposed ballot initiative.
The details on all of it via the link.
As our Maria Altman reported in a feature piece on the subject, "Missouri’s public defenders have argued for years that they have too many cases."
Today, a ruling was issued on a related case that goes back over two years. Here's a snippet, with more via the link:
"It doesn’t solve the problem of too many cases in need of lawyers, but it takes the problem off the backs of public defenders and it makes it visible just how badly we need more lawyers." - director of the Missouri public defender system, Cat Kelly
Follow Kelsey Proud on Twitter: @KelseyProud
