Setting the Record Straight: Texas Scorecard’s ‘Hubris’
Tort reform is done and TLR has changed its mission to stay relevant.
Personal injury trial lawyers have argued for years that “tort reform is done.” The fact that a self-proclaimed conservative group is now parroting the personal injury bar’s messaging is shocking and ignorant of the real problems Texas job creators—particularly small businesses—face from abusive lawsuits.
TLR continues to focus on its mission of keeping Texas’ legal system fair and efficient, and shutting down abusive lawsuits whenever and wherever they occur. TLR has passed important reforms to fix abuses of our legal system and make our courts more efficient in every legislative session since our creation—most recently with the creation of the Texas business court and 15th Court of Appeals, which had been priorities for Gov. Abbott and Attorney General Paxton, respectively.
Because many of Texas’ trial court benches are occupied by judges who refuse to properly apply the law as written by the Legislature or handed down by the Supreme Court, Texas is now leading the nation in shockingly large verdicts into the hundreds of millions of dollars. If this trend continues, Texas will devolve from the best state in the U.S. to conduct business to a state that is avoided by job creators. TLR’s mission compels it to work with the Legislature to rein the abuses leading to these massive verdicts.
Additionally, throughout the nation, progressive cities and counties are using courts to attempt to regulate society. The trial lawyers who represent them—for a cut of the winnings—have developed a theory that will allow them to extract billions of dollars in damages from sellers of lawful products and entities engaged in lawful activities if they can get a court to declare the product or activity to be a nuisance to the public at large. They are using this strategy to try to regulate everything from the production of oil and gas to the packaging of products. TLR intends to work with the Legislature in the upcoming legislative session to prevent this “public nuisance” theory from being used by Texas courts and lawyers to circumvent the Legislature and regulate society.
TLR has important work to do, and it is focused on doing that work every day.
TLR opposes important conservative priorities in the Legislature.
TLR does not take policy positions for or against issues unrelated to the state’s justice and litigation system. Texas Scorecard relies on pure hearsay to lob this allegation, unsupported by named sources at the Capitol aside from their own paid staffers.
Regardless of the issue, we understand that lawmakers want to ensure their legislation is effectively enforced to achieve a specific purpose. To that end, TLR regularly advises legislators on the most effective and appropriate enforcement mechanisms to achieve those goals without introducing new, unnecessary or unreasonably expansive causes of action.
For example, TLR was consulted ahead of session on a measure to protect children from gender modification procedures. Because the goal of the bill was to prevent those procedures from happening in the first place, we advised that an injunction lawsuit brought to prevent the procedure from occurring would be more effective than a lawsuit for damages filed years after the fact. Therefore, we suggested: (1) banning the procedure, (2) creating a right to an injunction to prevent the procedure from happening, (3) making it a crime to perform such a procedure, and (4) revoking the license of any doctor who performs the procedure. Those recommendations were largely accepted and TLR’s efforts helped stop child gender modification in Texas. The bill passed the Legislature, was signed into law by the governor, and is the “law of the land” today in Texas.
Source: Republican Party of Texas Press Release
TLR has never supported Ken Paxton.
This lie is made absurd by the fact that it is so easily disproven through public records.
TLRPAC supported Ken Paxton starting with his first race for the Texas House and extending throughout his political career, with contributions totaling nearly $1.5 million. In fact, TLRPAC was Paxton’s largest contributor in his highly contested 2018 reelection campaign for attorney general, when he was seriously challenged by a self-funding Democrat trial lawyer.
TLRPAC’s support shifted only after the credible allegations of Paxton’s wrongdoing were reported to law enforcement by his senior staff in 2020. Because TLR was concerned that Paxton’s problems might affect the elections of conservatives up and down the ballot, TLRPAC supported Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman in the Republican Primary. TLRPAC had no role in the runoff between Paxton and George P. Bush and endorsed Paxton in the contested General Election in November 2022.
TLR Contributions to Kenneth W. Paxton1
| REPNO | Contributor Name | Amount | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 205232 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 1,000.00 | 08-06-2002 |
| 353705 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 500.00 | 11-26-2004 |
| 353705 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 500.00 | 12-06-2004 |
| 299467 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 500.00 | 12-08-2005 |
| 331845 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 1,500.00 | 12-06-2006 |
| 360552 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 2,500.00 | 12-13-2007 |
| 403911 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 2,500.00 | 11-16-2008 |
| 440109 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 1,000.00 | 10-30-2009 |
| 478983 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 1,000.00 | 12-09-2010 |
| 516654 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 10,000.00 | 11-21-2011 |
| 580382 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 1,000.0 | 06-21-2013 |
| 621621 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 5,000.0 | 06-18-2014 |
| 621621 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 4,000.00 | 06-27-2014 |
| 628740 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 8,650.30 | 07-02-2014 |
| 628740 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 25,000.00 | 07-29-2014 |
| 628740 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC (general purpose PAC) | 4,647.57 | 08-14-2014 |
| 628740 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 100,000.00 | 09-22-2014 |
| 631291 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 25,000.00 | 10-14-2014 |
| 631291 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 25,000.00 | 10-14-2014 |
| 643931 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 1,750.00 | 12-12-2014 |
| 100262673 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 25,000.00 | 06-25-2015 |
| 100638095 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 10,000.00 | 06-23-2016 |
| 100680074 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 5,000.00 | 12-09-2016 |
| 100674309 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 10,000.00 | 06-28-2017 |
| 100690774 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 5,000.00 | 12-21-2017 |
| 100712712 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 5,000.00 | 04-20-2018 |
| 100712712 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 15,000.00 | 04-20-2018 |
| 100712712 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 3,000.00 | 05-30-2018 |
| 100712712 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 50,000.00 | 06-27-201 |
| 100722355 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 5,000.0 | 09-24-2018 |
| 100724561 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 6,694.00 | 10-08-2018 |
| 100724561 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 6,694.00 | 10-12-2018 |
| 100724561 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 5,000.00 | 10-22-2018 |
| 100724561 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 250,000.00 | 10-15-2018 |
| 100724561 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 6,694.0 | 10-19-2018 |
| 100724561 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 100,000.00 | 10-22-2018 |
| 100724561 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 344,000.00 | 10-25-2018 |
| 100755642 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 6,694.00 | 10-30-2018 |
| 100755642 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 200,000.00 | 10-30-2018 |
| 100755642 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 145,000.00 | 11-01-2018 |
| 100755642 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 6,694.00 | 11-01-2018 |
| 100755642 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 5,356.00 | 11-06-2018 |
| 100755810 | Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC | 10,000.00 | 06-27-2019 |
| 1,446,873.87 |
1Source: Texas Ethics Commission Thursday, April 18, 2024, at 10:19:31 CDT.
TLR supports Democratic chairs in the Texas House.
TLR has always been respectful of the Republican presiding officers in the Senate and House and has never taken a position on their management of the legislative rules and process, with the one exception that TLR has publicly stated that the House speaker should be chosen by a majority vote of the governing caucus.
TLR orchestrated the House impeachment of Ken Paxton.
As we have unequivocally stated from the beginning, TLR had nothing to do with the House investigation or impeachment of Ken Paxton. No evidence of any kind was ever produced by those who assert otherwise, because no such evidence exists.
No one associated with TLR knew about the House General Investigating Committee’s investigation of Paxton until the public hearing on May 24, 2023. The committee made clear the investigation was triggered by Paxton’s appropriation request for $3 million to settle the lawsuit by several of his senior staff, who reported him to law enforcement for abuse of office.
