Mother of Jennifer Cobb Speaks Out Against Portions of Tort Reform Bill

Senate Bill 68, part of Governor Brian Kemp’s Tort reform campaign has passed in the Senate and is now in the House.

The Governor and Republican lawmakers blame frivolous lawsuits for raising insurance premiums so high that businesses have been forced to lay off workers or close their doors.

However, there are those who say that if parts of SB68 are not amended, if passed, it would make it almost impossible for victims of certain crimes to get justice.

Those victims include children, victims of sexual abuse, and elderly victims of sexual abuse.

Susan Cobb is the mother of Jennifer Cobb, who committed suicide in 2021 after years of alleged sexual abuse by her gymnastics coach at the Bell Family YMCA in Hartwell.

Both Cobb and her attorney, Kara Phillips of Deitch & Rogers Law Firm in Atlanta, spoke to the House Rules Committee earlier this week asking for amendments to the bill before it goes to a floor vote.

One change requested by Phillips was to insert an exception for children, victims of sexual assault, and the elderly in Section 51-3-53 which states that owners or occupiers of businesses could not be held liable for negligent security.  (20252026-233525)

If amended as Cobb and Phillips requested, businesses or business owners in which a sexual assault took place could be held liable for not having adequate security to prevent such crimes.

Cobb said she recently settled her civil suit with the Bell Family YMCA for violating their own policies designed to protect children.

She said as the bill stands now, it will not protect children, victims of sexual assault, and the elderly.

While the Cobb family has settled their civil suit with the Bell Family YMCA, the civil suit against their daughter’s alleged molester is still awaiting trial.

She pointed out that all awarded money from either of the civil suits will go back into a special Foundation set up in Jennifer Cobb’s memory to help victims of sexual assault and abuse.

Phillips told the Committee if section 51-3-53 is not amended to exclude victims like Jennifer Cobb, Georgia’s most vulnerable would have no recourse for justice.

SB 68 had a second read in the House on Feb 28 but has not yet come up for a vote before the full House.

WLHR News viewed the latest version of the bill on Thursday and so far, section 51-3-53 had not been amended.

You can view the entire House Rules Committee hearing from March 5 here.