Day 2 … Not Much to See

Wednesday, February 15, 2025, was Day 2 of the 89th regular session of the Texas Legislature. It was wholly uneventful. 

The House was in session for 35 minutes. The Senate was in session for about 18 minutes. 

The House sent seven messengers to the Senate to say the House is organized and ready to conduct business, which was warmly received by the Senate. The Senate returned the favor, appointing five members to inform the House that it, too, is organized and ready to conduct business. 

The House sent over a resolution to replace a Confederate plaque. The Senate approved a few amendments to its rules. Both chambers did a little of this and that.

The two bodies overwhelmingly agreed to a resolution under Article III, Section 17, of the Constitution, allowing either chamber to adjourn for more than three days with the other chamber’s consent. 

The House will meet again tomorrow at 10a to take up a housekeeping resolution. It will consider adoption of rules to govern proceedings in the House next Wednesday, January 22. If you want to watch replays of House proceedings, go here: https://house.texas.gov/videos/chamber.

The Senate adjourned until 1p, Wednesday, January 22. If you want to watch replays of Senate proceedings, go here: https://senate.texas.gov/av-archive.php

Organized and Ready to Conduct Business

The chambers sent “love” notes to each other to say they both are organized and ready to work. What’s that about, you ask? Good question. Beats me. It sounds like some arcane constitutional requirement, but I’ll be darned if I could find it in the Texas Constitution.

And … while we are on the subject of organized and ready to conduct business, that accurately describes TLR.

We have important work to do at the Capitol this year. 

Some plaintiff lawyers and some medical professionals are in an unholy alliance to inflate medical damages to maximize lawsuit damages. It’s fraud. It’s an embarrassment to both the legal and medical professions. And it happens every day in courtrooms throughout the state. 

This tactic, coupled with other abusive activities in litigation, is driving enormous “nuclear” verdicts in Texas in cases where the plaintiff suffered little or no injury or caused his own injury. When a person suffers a real injury due to another person’s negligence, the injured person is entitled to reasonable compensation, and a fair court system should provide that compensation. TLR fully supports fair recoveries in legitimate cases. 

But when a fender bender causes little damage to the vehicles involved and the plaintiff says he is unhurt, which a hospital visit confirms, that event should not result in $130,000 in unpaid medical bills and a $101 million verdict—which is a true story. See https://casetext.com/case/fts-intl-servs-llc-v-patterson.  

The enormous judgments are driving insurance premiums through the roof for all Texans. And the businesses have no choice but to pass the cost on insurance through to you and me, in the form of increased costs for goods we all need. Literally, toilet paper and milk cost more today than they should because of this lawsuit abuse.

It has to stop … and so … we are organized and ready to conduct business!