Amends calculations of interest in civil actions a rate determined by average accepted auction price for last auction of 52 week U.S. treasury bills.
Summary
This bill amends Rhode Island’s law governing interest in civil actions. Under current law, when a plaintiff wins a money judgment, the clerk adds prejudgment and post-judgment interest at a fixed 12% annual rate in most civil cases. S1014 would replace that fixed rate with a variable rate tied to the coupon issue yield equivalent of the average accepted auction price for the most recent 52-week U.S. Treasury bill auction immediately before the action is filed.
The bill preserves the existing special rule for medical malpractice cases. In actions for personal injury or wrongful death against specified health care providers based on professional negligence, interest would still be calculated from the earlier of written notice of the claim to the insurer/provider or the filing of the lawsuit, rather than from the date the cause of action accrued or the filing date used in other civil cases. The bill would take effect immediately upon passage.
Impact
S1014 would amend Rhode Island General Laws § 9-21-10, changing how courts calculate interest added to civil judgments. It would affect the amount of prejudgment and post-judgment interest in most civil damages cases by linking the rate to a federal Treasury bill benchmark instead of the current 12% statutory rate. The change would directly affect litigants, insurers, and judgment debtors/creditors in civil cases, while leaving the medical malpractice interest rule in place for covered health care defendants.
Sentiment
Based on the bill text and the absence of recorded committee testimony or votes, there is no documented public debate in the provided materials. The measure appears technical and procedural rather than ideological, aimed at updating the interest formula used in civil judgments. Because no committee discussion or voting history is available, overall sentiment cannot be measured beyond the bill’s neutral, administrative framing.
Contention
The main policy issue is the shift from a fixed 12% interest rate to a market-based Treasury bill rate. Supporters would likely view this as modernizing the statute and aligning interest with prevailing rates, while opponents may worry it reduces compensation or settlement leverage for prevailing plaintiffs when market rates are lower than 12%. Another possible point of contention is that the bill retains a separate rule for medical malpractice cases, which could be seen as preserving a special carve-out for health care defendants while changing the general rule for other civil actions.