If TWIA is allowed to continue operating the way it operates today and if a small group of lawyers is allowed to continue to unduly inflate claim amounts and extract tens or hundreds of millions of dollars from the process for their personal benefit, future hurricanes that hit the Texas coast— particularly a category 4 or 5 storm—could cost Texas citizens billions.

Campaign finance is an important part of Texas politics. Individuals and political action committees (PACs) contribute significant sums of money to Texas political campaigns. While campaign contributions are technically “public information,” it unfortunately takes a lot of digging to uncover the truth about exactly who is giving how much, when there is an attempt to hide or disguise contributions. This report is an examination of the massive influence that a small group of plaintiff lawyers—known commonly as trial lawyers—exert on Texas’ political system through their injection of millions of dollars in contributions. 

S.B. 15, the asbestos/silica litigation reform bill, distinguishes between the claims of people who are physically impaired or sick due to exposure to asbestos or silica and those who are not experiencing any physical impairment relating to asbestos or silica. The bill allows those claimants who are actually impaired to pursue their claims in the judicial system and defer the claims of those who are not impaired. The bill does this by establishing medical criteria that a claimant must meet to demonstrate impairment before proceeding with a lawsuit.

In its November issue, Texas Monthly published an article by Mimi Swartz entitled “Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!” The article takes the viewpoint that Texans for Lawsuit Reform has single-handedly manipulated the tort system in Texas to deprive injured Texans of their day in court. That viewpoint is neither accurate nor justified. The article is misleading and inaccurate. It makes incorrect statements of fact and law and reflects a startling lack of understanding of tort law, the Texas civil justice system, and TLR.