Texans for Lawsuit Reform

Through political action, legal, academic and market research, and grassroots initiatives, TLR fights for common-sense reforms that keep Texas open for business.

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For the Record

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

By: Lucy Nashed, TLR Communications Director

For watchdogs of the Texas legal system, the American Tort Reform Association’s annual Judicial Hellholes report provides some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that Texas has successfully avoided being named the worst of the worst for the second year in a row, since storm-chasing lawyers propelled us to a Hellhole designation in 2016. The bad news is that two massive 2018 verdicts from Texas trial courts landed us on this year’s Dishonorable Mention list.

And as they say, where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

The first verdict came in August 2018, when a Dallas trial court awarded $241 million to a couple whose children were seriously injured in a car accident. The jury found that the car’s seats were defective and unreasonably dangerous. The jury assigned 95 percent of the responsibility for the plaintiffs’ injuries to Toyota and assigned only five percent of the responsibility to the distracted driver who caused the crash. According to the ATRA report, the jury found liability and awarded damages even though “the product exceeded federal safety standards, there was no evidence of a safer alternative design, and the court had refused to allow Toyota to present its own expert rebuttal testimony.”

The second verdict came only two months later, when a San Antonio trial court handed down the largest verdict in the U.S. in 2018. The $740 million judgement against Amrock, a title insurance and property valuation company, found that it maliciously misappropriated trade secrets held by a startup company called HouseCanary.

There’s just one problem.

“Texas law does not allow the award of speculative damages. For that reason, it is very difficult for a company that has shown modest profits to recover a significant amount of money for lost future profits. But the restrictive nature of Texas’s law on lost-profits damages did not impede the trial court from signing a historic judgment in favor of a start-up company with virtually no history of success in the market.”

The Judicial Hellholes report is one voice in a swelling chorus of concern about the quality of Texas’ judicial system. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform’s report on the cost of litigation to Texas families noted a weakness in Texas’ judges and juries, while both CNBC and Forbes gave lackluster rankings for Texas’ legal system in their listings of the best states to do business.

Collectively, they shine a spotlight on a weak point in Texas’ legal system, which is that we have too many trial judges who are either lazy, incompetent, biased or corrupt.

Common-sense lawsuit reforms are only as good as the judges who apply the laws. Part of what earned Texas the designation of the Wild West of Litigation in the 1970s and 1980s was activist judges who produced results according to their own sense of “justice” rather than conducting trials impartially and applying our laws as written.

While we have not yet reached the level of a four-alarm blaze, the partisanship that swept out many experienced incumbent appellate judges in November is a spark that has the potential to engulf our legal system—and ultimately our economy—in flames.

There is still time to extinguish this fire and protect the balanced civil justice system and strong economy that Texas has built over the last 25 years. TLR is committed to that fight.

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Texans for Lawsuit Reform

23 hours ago

Texans for Lawsuit Reform

The Dallas County DA argued a judge’s impartiality could reasonably be questioned after she lowered a defendant’s bail considerably while his defense lawyer is one of her top campaign contributors, and then raised his bail after media reports about her rulings. Read and share: bit.ly/3lfQMzM ... See MoreSee Less

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Dallas judge under scrutiny for bail rulings recuses herself from cases

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Judge Chika Anyiam, of Criminal District Court 7, recused herself Monday from 10 felony cases against Julio Guerrero. A Dallas County judge who faced public scrutiny for lowering a murder suspect’s ...
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Texans for Lawsuit Reform

2 days ago

Texans for Lawsuit Reform

TLR General Counsel Lee Parsley joined the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform’s podcast to discuss nuclear verdicts in the trucking industry and what legislators can do to ensure that excessive lawsuits don't shut down this vital industry. Listen and share: bit.ly/3wjgKJ9 #trucking #lawsuit #LegalNews #courts ... See MoreSee Less

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Nuclear Verdicts Create Litigation "Vortex" for Trucking Industry

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In this episode of Cause for Action, Nathan Morris, senior vice president, legal reform advocacy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, is joined by Lee Parsley, the general couns...
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Texans for Lawsuit Reform

2 days ago

Texans for Lawsuit Reform

TLR General Counsel Lee Parsley joined the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform podcast to discuss nuclear verdicts in the trucking industry and what legislators can do to ensure that excessive lawsuits don't shut down this vital industry. Listen and share: bit.ly/3wjgKJ9 ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Nuclear Verdicts Create Litigation "Vortex" for Trucking Industry

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In this episode of Cause for Action, Nathan Morris, senior vice president, legal reform advocacy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, is joined by Lee Parsley, the general couns...
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Want to make a difference in the fight against lawsuit abuse? Join the TLR team today! #stoplawsuitabuse

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lawsuitreform avatarTLR@lawsuitreform·
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The Dallas County DA argued a judge’s impartiality could be questioned after she lowered a defendant’s bail while his defense lawyer is one of her top campaign contributors and then raised his bail after media reports about her rulings. Read & RT:

Dallas judge under scrutiny for bail rulings recuses herself from cases

Judge Chika Anyiam, of Criminal District Court 7, recused herself Monday from 10 felony cases against Julio Guerrero. A Dallas County judge who faced ...

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17 May 1526684119077371904

TLR is working to make the Texas legal system fair, efficient, and accessible for all. Learn more: #tortreform

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TLR's objective is to restore litigation to its traditional and appropriate role in our society. A lawsuit takes a heavy emotional and financial toll ...

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Texans for Lawsuit Reform
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Houston, Texas 77019

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