What happened: An alliance between personal injury lawyers and certain medical providers has driven a surge in nuclear verdicts across Texas, inflicting serious harm on small businesses. Read more

Tell me more: In 2023, nuclear verdicts of $10 million or more reached a 15-year high. 

• Some cases, like a 2018 fender-bender in Upshur County, resulted in awards exceeding $100 million, fueled by exaggerated medical treatments from doctors tied to the plaintiff’s legal team. 

• These verdicts not only distort justice but raise insurance costs and pressure businesses to scale back, relocate or shut down.

TLR Thoughts: While many nuclear verdict cases relate to very serious injuries, the increase in the number and amount of these verdicts is distorting Texas’s legal system and discouraging allocation of capital to Texas. These awards are economically unsustainable. This session, TLR – alongside a coalition comprised of more than 1,200 Texas businesses, associations and individuals – urged meaningful reforms in SB 30 and SB 39, to prevent judicial actions that are distorting Texas’s litigation environment and yielding both nuclear verdicts and excessive verdicts in run-of-the mill cases. Although the legislation did not pass this year, legislative action remains vital for the health of Texas job creators and for the Texas families who are hit with skyrocketing costs due to these abusive lawsuits. TLR is calling on the Texas Legislature to prioritize this issue in the 90th Texas Legislative Session.