Friends,
I hope y’all enjoyed celebrating America’s 250th Independence Day with friends and family or taking in the fireworks and awe-inspiring skyward displays of patriotism across the nation. The pride we feel comes from 250 years of transformation from a revolutionary nation to a global leader in commerce, entertainment, and innovation.
It’s been a powerful summer for promoting America, as social media commentary from World Cup visitors has taken over our newsfeeds. From Buc-ee’s to barbecue to ranch dressing diplomacy, tourists from around the world are fascinated with the American experience.
While these videos bring joy and stoke our national pride, the American experience closer to home is facing real challenges. The ongoing pressure from rising prices made this the most expensive Fourth of July on record for American families. Also concerning is the rise in social inflation — the increase in litigation costs driven by behaviors and attitudes, rather than economic factors — which nearly doubled from 2017 to 2022 and hasn’t slowed down.
Improving affordability is key to giving Texans the euphoric feeling that this summer’s visitors felt, with the added blessing of living, working, and raising our families in the greatest nation ever. Fortunately, we know that lawsuit reform has worked in the past and present. The key is delivering new legal reforms to secure our road ahead.
For the future of Texas,
Ryan Patrick
CEO | TLR
Last week, The Weekly Business Hour invited TLR to be a featured guest on the business radio talk show to discuss our decades-long push for legal reforms in Texas. The conversation covers rising insurance costs, litigation risk facing small and large businesses alike, recent wins like the new business courts and the 15th Court of Appeals, and TLR’s current policy focus: combating medical billing fraud that inflates lawsuit verdicts.
From building the Texas Miracle through steady economic growth and pushing for more predictable outcomes in courts to creating business-friendly courts, the conversation covers the major components of building the modern economic engine that fuels Texas. The show also touches on the influx of companies to Texas, looking to build on the DEXIT success that brought companies like Dell Technologies and SpaceX to become 100% Texas-based businesses.
It’s been nearly 10 years since the Texas Legislature passed new legal reforms to stop lawsuit abuse following weather-related events. The results from HB 1774’s passage were a clear sign that tort reform works when the law is applied as written. Immediately following the law’s implementation on Sept. 1, 2017, weather-related lawsuits plummeted. At the time, trial lawyers pleaded with lawmakers that there was not a problem with these lawsuits. The sudden drop in filings paints a different picture.
The results since then are pretty stark: lawsuit filings dropped significantly, courts consistently held up the new law — providing predictability — and Texas avoided a near-market collapse similar to what Florida experienced before it passed reforms in 2023. Since Florida passed new reforms, 17 insurance carriers returned to the market, and the number of homeowners depending on state-provided coverage dropped in favor of the private sector and substantial rate cuts by carriers.
Rising caseloads in Texas civil courts are slowing down accident settlements
Lawsuit abuse hurts victims by clogging up court dockets with meritless cases. In 2024 alone, the number of personal injury lawsuits increased 16%. Despite changes by the legislature to add more courts, the backlog persists and is delaying access to justice for real victims.
COMMENTARY: Trial Lawyers Are Profiting from Making Your Transportation More Expensive
Trial-lawyer lawsuits exploiting liability against rideshare companies are driving up insurance costs and fares. This Op-Ed calls for Congress to extend Graves Amendment-style liability protections to TNCs (as it already has for rental cars) to stop the abuse.
OPINION: Staged truck accidents expose America’s lawsuit abuse crisis
This Op-Ed highlights how Operation Sideswipe, the decade-long staged accident ring in New Orleans, exposed the lawsuit abuse pipeline used by billboard lawyers across the nation. The case, which led to the conviction of two attorneys and their law firms, showed how the courts are being used to generate profit rather than to serve true victims.
