Whether or not Gov. Phil Bredesen presents a workers' compensation reform bill to the Legislature, the Senate Commerce Committee is prepared to present its own bill, Sen. Mark Norris said Tuesday.

"The governor has asked the joint workers' compensation advisory committee to draft the bill," Norris said by phone from his Nashville office. "They got off to a slow start so Sen. (Jerry) Cooper (D-Morrison) called his own hearings as chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee."

Norris, R-Collierville, said the commerce committee, of which he is a member, has held four or five hearings on workers' compensation.

"We'll have another one this week," he said. "We've heard from business groups, labor groups and trial lawyers."

He said the committee's biggest problem is finding true comparability among state workers' comp systems.

"One of our problems is comparing apples to apples," Norris said. "For example, are the systems in neighboring states -- Arkansas, for instance, comparable to Tennessee's?"

Bredesen said in his State of the State address earlier this month that the cost of workers' compensation insurance and claims in Tennessee are at a competitive disadvantage to surrounding states, which causes industries not to want to locate or expand in Tennessee.

"None of us wants anything that hurts Tennessee workers, but we must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water." Norris said. "If you don't have the jobs, then there aren't any workers to compensate."

He said trial lawyers, who represent injured workers, usually for a percentage of their settlements, are bitterly opposed to reforming workers' compensation laws.

"During the last round of reforms in the 1980s a cap to hold down the cost of settlements - 2 1/2 times annual salary -- was put in place," Norris said. "But now judges are using that figure not as a cap but as a multiplier and that practice has really raised the cost of workers' compensation."

Norris said he has introduced a bill with a broad enough caption to carry as an amendment whatever reform bill the governor or the committee fashions.

"I think workers' comp reform stands a fairly strong possibility of passing in this session," he said. "I base that on the voiced support of the governor , the speaker of the House and the commissioners of labor and economic community development."

Norris said he has been invited to speak about workers' compensation reform to members of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry March 17 during the group's annual meeting and legislative day.

Norris represents the 32nd Senate district, including Dyer, Lauderdale, Tipton and part of Shelby counties.