TLR Weekly News Roundup: June 11, 2025

June 11, 2025

Texas Judges Get Long Awaited Raise After Lawmaker Pension Pact (Bloomberg)

What happened: Texas lawmakers approved SB 293, a 25% pay raise for state judges—the first increase in 12 years—on the final day of the legislative session.

Texas Judges Get Long Awaited Raise After Lawmaker Pension Pact (Bloomberg)

What happened: Texas lawmakers approved SB 293, a 25% pay raise for state judges—the first increase in 12 years—on the final day of the legislative session. Read more

Why it matters: Texas ranks near the bottom nationally in judicial pay, making it harder to attract experienced, well-qualified candidates.

SB 293 also addresses long-standing concerns about linking judge salaries to lawmaker pensions by shifting oversight of future legislative pensions to the Texas Ethics Commission.

TLR Thoughts: Ensuring Texas has a strong, capable judiciary starts with attracting top legal talent—and fair, competitive compensation plays a major role. TLR strongly supported this reform because it will help expand and improve the pool of candidates seeking to serve, ultimately strengthening the quality of Texas’s judiciary and public trust in our courts.

Ending a Tax Break for Lawsuits (The Wall Street Journal)

What happened: U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and U.S. Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) have introduced a proposal to close a tax loophole that allows foreign litigation funders to avoid paying taxes on proceeds from lawsuits against U.S. companies. Read more

Tell me more: Third-party litigation funding has surged as global investment funds pour billions into U.S. lawsuits, often with questionable merit, seeking high returns from massive settlements or jury awards.

By the numbers: In 2023, 39 investors committed approximately $15.2 billion to commercial litigation in the U.S.

Litigation funders see average annual returns of 25%, fueled by large settlements and jackpot jury verdicts.
Foreign investors currently pay zero U.S. taxes on lawsuit proceeds, since those earnings are treated as capital gains and exempt under current tax law.
The average American household bore $4,200 in litigation-related costs in 2022, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
The Tillis-Hern proposal would tax all litigation funders—foreign and domestic—at the ordinary income rate of 37%, plus a 3.8% surcharge, closing the existing loophole.

TLR Thoughts: The loophole in the tax code benefits entities that fuel costly, abusive litigation rather than investing in innovation and job creation. The Tillis-Hern provision preserves access to the courts for legitimate claims while ending unfair tax advantages that encourage predatory lawsuits and undermine U.S. businesses.

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TLR's mission is to foster freedom, innovation and job creation by advocating for a fair, efficient and predictable civil justice system staffed by competent and independent judges who apply the constitution and laws as written.