In the News

A recent editorial in this newspaper asked, “Why would a law with the positive-sounding name Texas Citizens Participation Act (TCPA) be in danger?” and suggested Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) wants to gut the law to favor big business.

Billions of dollars are being invested in lawsuits by sophisticated hedge funds that, according to some of these firms, yield huge money for them. Yet neither the defendant, nor in many cases the actual plaintiffs, have any idea that this is happening.

The reality is that, having experienced a string of losses, trial attorneys are now shopping around for new plaintiffs to push their flawed legal theory. Even if that means finding potential plaintiffs on crab boats in San Francisco Bay. Or even if it means convincing officials in Florida to become the next to play the public nuisance sweepstakes.

A panel of Texas’ Third District Court of Appeals judges will hear arguments Tuesday in a case pitting the State Bar of Texas’ Commission for Lawyer Discipline against an Austin lawyer fighting sanctions over allegedly abusive litigation tactics targeting businesses for Americans with Disabilities Act violations.

“When partisan politics is the driving force and the political climate is as harsh as ours has become, judicial elections make judges more political, and judicial independence is the casualty. Make no mistake: A judicial selection system that continues to sow the political wind will reap the whirlwind.”

The Trump Justice Department, following a tougher policy toward dubious False Claims Act lawsuits by private citizens, has moved to dismiss a pair of lawsuits by a former hedge-fund manager who shorted stock in pharmaceutical companies he accused of a wide-ranging price-fixing conspiracy.

“The conversation on tort reform is not just about money,” Warrick said. “These high-risk malpractice climates are driving physicians to diagnose thyroid cancer in people who really don’t benefit from the diagnosis and treatment. It’s hurting people not just financially but also medically.”

Litigation over pelvic mesh, also called transvaginal mesh, ranks as one of the biggest mass tort cases in United States history, in terms of claims filed, number of corporate defendants and settlement dollars. Seven medical device manufacturers, including Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson, are paying nearly $8 billion to resolve the claims of more than 100,000 women.

In-house counsel from 30 major U.S. companies are backing a proposal that would require full disclosure of third-party funding in litigation.

Court records in Florida show how easy it is for people to get swept up in a figurative machine that generates lawsuits. In fact, it all started for one man with the push of a button.