Perry: We Have a Tort Reform Emergency
With the House set to take up a loser-pays bill for the second time tomorrow, Gov. Rick Perry has added an item to his emergency list: tort reform.
The announcement came this morning in the House and Senate that the governor had declared the reform of “civil remedies and procedures” an emergency item.
Intended to allow the Legislature to get around the ban on considering bills for the first 60 days of the session and provide an opportunity for the executive-in-chief to focus public and legislative attention on priority issues, the governor typically doesn't name emergency items with only ...
Comments (16)
Adam Silva via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sure, the same way we have an abortion sonogram 'emergency' and a sanctuary cities 'emergency.' What a joke.
Dale H Curry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Speaking of Losers, what lies has Perry told today?
Charlie Jackson via Texas Tribune on Facebook
they've used this excuse before to affect legislative caps on awards, yet insurance rates continue to rise - not due to torts.
Charlene Cheek via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Dale... I am with you on that!
Kyle King via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Tort reform = Protect Corporate sugar daddies
Danny Wier via Texas Tribune on Facebook
He sure like to use that word "emergency" a lot. I wonder if he's ever called 911 because they got his order wrong at Burger King.
David Huang via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Where's the access to health care emergency and the education emergency and the budget emergency?
Rudy Gonzales
We need term limitation and Initiative & Referendum immediately given the idiocy of our current career Governor. I wonder which PAC paid him to call tort reform an emergency!
James Stockard
This story is unclear. If the "loser pays" changes apply only to breach of contract lawsuits, it doesn't involve "tort reform" at all. A "loser pays" law applicable to tort lawsuits would indeed be a huge change in the law, but that's not how the story describes the bill.
Morgan Smith
James: The bill in its current state would indeed apply to only a small section of civil lawsuits. But it also contains a provision that would allow prevailing parties to recover attorneys' fees if a judge grants a motion to dismiss. Have updated to clear that up.
Bill Carson
I could support a loser pays system, as long as it is fairly applied. (Oh, I forgot--fairness only happens in fairy tales.)
If the plaintiff wins, the defendant ought to have to pay the plaintiff's attorney's fees.
But I bet that's not what TLR or the Governor have in mind. No, what they want is for the plaintiff to have to pay the defendant's attorney's fees, not the other way around.
Chris May via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I'd love to see some type of Venn diagram infographic that illustrates the disparity between Perry's "emergency" priorities and the top priorities of the electorate. Even in this absurdly red state, his "emergency" priorities are way out of line with most voters' priorities, yet he never ceases to invoke the will of the people as being consistent with his own when justifying his emergency priorities. Brilliant!
Bill Conley via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I'm convinced that the only person who can be a bigger dick than Rick Perry is Rick Perry.
Ron Harrison
Morgan, this is worse than loser pays and needs to be explained. The tort reformers don't want loser pays in the pure, fair sense. That would mean every car wreck and trespass to property case would also allow the prevailing party to recover attorney's fees, which would just mean a bigger recovery for the plaintiff 9 times out of 10. So, what this bill does is allow the defendant to use a lowball settlement offer as a club. So, with this law here's the future of litigation in Texas: injured plaintiff who has modest resources and can only hire a plaintiff on a contingency basis sues Walmart. It's a good case and more likely than not is a winner-- which is the standard for proof in civil cases after all (preponderance of the evidence not beyond a reasonable doubt which is criminal). But, it's not a perfect case and they never are for any number of reasons-- the witnesses for Walmart may change their story, the trial judge who just got assigned is a wildcard, some appellate opinion just came out that changes the law on expert challenges, etc. Now stay with me here: Walmart makes a lowball offer, a fraction of the value of the claim. If for some reason the odds don't play out and the injured plaintiff loses at trial, he is now liable for all of Walmart's fees--defense attorney fees routinely run at $500 per hour and higher. The bill through trial for the defense lawyer can easily be in $300,000 and above, which would bankrupt the injured party. As a result, the average citizen will no longer be able to access the courthouse. He cannot risk financial ruin and will have to take the token offer, which bears no resemblance to his true damages. What's more, all of this will become known to the plaintiff's bar of attorneys and they will not take these cases for the average citizen anymore-- there is no financial return on them. The injured party will no longer be able to find a lawyer to take his case. This would apply to every single case and would give the big corporations an insurmountable advantage.
Patricia Wood
Outrageous. Nobody favors frivolous law suits, but the loser-pays feature would effectively ward off many righteous suits being brought against big companies, which already own a huge advantage in terms of legal resources. Don't forget---this is David vs Goliath---and Goliath would get an even more insurmountable advantage. The tort "reform" we already have in place effectively takes most big businesses (including companies/ corporations, hospitals) off the hook for any liability---this would be another step towards completely eliminating their liability altogether. Why are we surprised? The philosophy here is: what's good for Bidness is automatically good for Texas. For the folks in charge, there simply is no other factor worth considering. Fairness, justice, to say nothing of public safety all take a back seat while our "leaders" carry luggage for big business interests. Shame on them.
Dale H Curry via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Just so everyone realizes what this is really about. This is another one of Ricky and "TParty theocrats" Weapons of Mass Destraction. They throw som BS out there so we do not focus ont their FAILURE to fund our schools among so many other Social net initiatives. These distractions are designed to lessen the focus on what their "tax swaps" are doing to our state. They want to distract us that despite cutting billions from EDUCATION AND public services, they still have $$ for their BIG OIL AND BIG INSURANCE buddies of RICKY.