Tiahrt: Put brakes on Kansas cities and counties targeting businesses with lawsuits | Opinion
Kansas has always prided itself on being a state where fairness, accountability and economic opportunity thrive.
However, a recent trend threatens to undermine the great work our elected officials have done to cement these values.
Legislators must act.
As municipal litigation against private companies has skyrocketed across the country in recent years, cities and counties in Kansas are increasingly joining the fray and suing industries vital to our local economy. While holding bad actors accountable is important, these lawsuits often lack merit and have sought billions of dollars to remediate purported damages related to issues as wide-ranging as climate change and plastic pollution.
In many cases, they are also being driven not by public officials themselves but by private law firms operating on a contingency basis hired by local governments — an important distinction that suggests a conflict of interest.
Given that these firms get paid only if they win and that their compensation is based on how much they recover, they have been encouraged to pursue massive settlements rather than justice. This threatens the economic stability of Kansas communities by driving up legal costs and discouraging businesses from investing or expanding in the Sunflower State.
Ultimately, this could lead to job losses, higher consumer prices and a less competitive economic environment.
Concerns about the rule of law and constitutional continuity have also been raised, as such arrangements significantly undermine the balance of power between state and local governments. Traditionally, such actions against private companies have fallen under the purview of the Kansas attorney general, but if every county and city in Kansas starts suing private businesses independently, this risks a chaotic legal environment where companies face an uncoordinated flood of lawsuits that undermines faith in our courts.
Fortunately, the 2025 legislative session provides a monumental opportunity to curtail this harmful practice in Kansas. Senate Bill 242, which was recently introduced, would significantly limit the use of contingency fee agreements with private attorneys and would institute much-needed guardrails around the practice.
If passed, the bill would require that local governments seeking to enter into contingency fee arrangements demonstrate a substantial need for the services they are procuring and that their own attorneys and staff cannot perform them.
Contracts would also have to be approved in an open meeting and receive the sign-off of the Kansas attorney general, who would also be granted the ability to go back and retroactively review all current contingency fee contracts for legal services enacted with local governments, adding additional layers of accountability to the process.
The reforms outlined in S.B. 242’s reforms offer a much-needed solution to this issue and should be passed. Restoring the attorney general’s role as the primary legal representative for Kansas residents in actions taken against private companies ensures that legal action remains in the hands of public officials who are focused on the public interest — not on padding the bottom lines of profit-seeking law firms.
When municipalities prioritize individual lawsuits over collaboration with the state, legal costs skyrocket as businesses are forced to contend with a flood of spurious litigation, and the pool of funds available for truly injured parties shrinks — effectively hurting those most affected.
The only guaranteed winners are the private attorneys collecting hefty contingency fees.
If left unchecked, Kansas businesses will be increasingly targeted by this scheme, putting jobs and economic growth at risk.
We should not allow municipalities to gamble with taxpayer money or use litigation as a political tool to strong-arm companies into following a particular agenda. Senate Bill 242 is a commonsense step in the right direction for a sector of the litigation space in dire need of reform.