In the News

Television viewers in each of Texas’ four largest media markets were bombarded with an average $4.1 million in ads for lawyers, lawsuits and legal services in the final quarter of 2018, according to a new study released today by the American Tort Reform Association.

Texans have never been afraid of change, and that’s good since the state’s population has almost quadrupled in my lifetime and our once land-and- mineral-based economy has become more vibrant and diverse. But 21st-century Texas’s 19th-century judicial system increasingly fails to serve its people’s needs.

Texas is one of nine states that picks district court judges with a party ticket vote. And Texas is only one of six states that also selects the justices on its supreme courts and appellate courts with partisan elections. Is there a better way to pick a Texas judge? Some legislators may try to offer new ideas to address that old question.

On April 11, the Texas Senate passed SB 1189, which relates to deceptive advertising of legal services and seeks to bring transparency and accountability to such attorney-paid ads.

A bill winding its way through the Texas Senate would strictly regulate lawyer advertising for prescription medication and medical device litigation, and impose a civil penalty for violations under the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

Local governmental entities would have to follow a new procedure to hire contingent-fee plaintiffs law firms for cases involving engineering and architects under a bill that a Texas legislative committee passed Monday.

Austin’s Third Court of Appeals found that an anti-SLAPP law applied to an attorney ethics case will open the floodgates for lawyers looking dismiss disciplinary charges against them, one justice warned in a concurring opinion.

Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake, told committee members that he introduced HB 2251, which seeks to add disclosures to attorney health care advertising, because he’s a proponent of transparency. Capriglione said his bill provides for certain “commonsense disclosures” so potential clients hooked by lawyer health care ads will be better informed.

There’s a growing trend in Texas – attorneys recruiting local governments to pursue litigation. House Bill 2826 is aimed at bringing transparency to how local governments hire law firms for civil lawsuits. Texans for Lawsuit Reform believes HB 2826 will bring transparency to the process, requiring state entities to negotiate a contract with the “most highly qualified” attorney and not just the firms that solicit them.

In February, three of the world’s largest litigation funders—hedge funds that “invest” in lawsuits for a cut of any award or settlement—wrote to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules, the entity that writes rules for federal courts. Their purpose was to push back on the business community’s call, led by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), for the Committee to mandate transparency for litigation funding so that funders do not continue to undermine plaintiffs’ control of a case, unnecessarily prolong litigation, and fuel more questionable lawsuits.