Tort Reform in Texas, Part 1
An Overview of
Political Infrastructures and
Influencing Public Policy Agendas
Tort reform refers to proposed changes in the civil justice system that would
reduce tort litigation or damages. Tort is a system for compensating wrongs
and harm done by one party to another's person, property or other protected
interests (e.g. reputation, under libel and slander laws). Tort reform advocates
focus on personal injury in particular. Accident compensation procedures,
compensation, and reform proposals vary greatly among jurisdictions, with a
compensation [1]
general upwards trend in compensation.[1]
In the United States tort reform is a contentious political issue. US tort reform
advocates propose, among other things, procedural limits on the ability to file
claims, and capping the awards of damages. According to F b reporter
l i d i h d fd A di Forbes
Daniel Fisher, tort reform is "A catchall phrase for legislative measures
designed to make it harder for individuals to sue businesses.“
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tort_reform#Themes_of_reform
,
Justice Powell’s Memo to US Chamber of Commerce, 1971:
www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/personality/print/sourc
es_document13.html
Review the involvement of Karl Rove in tort reform:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/archite
ct/texas/tort.html
Visit this website and view the video clip:
http://www.tortreform.com/tlr-video
Visit this website and view the video clip of Texas Attorney General
Greg Abbott
http://www.tortreform.com/node/485
Frank Luntz (GOP consultant):
Unlike most complex issues, the problems in our civil justice system
come with a ready-made villain: the lawyer.
Few classes of Americans are more reviled by the general public than
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attorneys, and you should tap into people’s anger and frustrations
with practitioners of the law.*
Tort Reform: Strategic Representations of Issues
(1) Narrative structure – beginning, middle, and end involving decline
and prospects for change with villains (lawyers, judges, plaintiffs)
(“reformers”)
and heroes ( reformers )
(2) Numbers – litigation “explosion,” multi-million dollar punitive
damage awards
(3) Metaphors – tort reform rhetoric relies on vivid depictions, e.g.,
“skyrocketing,” “lottery,” “running amok,”
* Quotation from Daniels and Martin. “Punitive Damages, Change, and the Politics of Ideas: Defining Public
Policy Problems”.
September 3, 2006
New Breed of Lawyer Gives Every Dog His Day in Court
A decade ago only a few law schools taught animal law. Today 70 do, including
Harvard, Columbia and Duke. In fall 2004 the American Bar Association formed
its first committee on animal law, which many say legitimized the discipline.
There is evidence that
courts are coming around
to this way of thinking.
In May an Oregon jury
ordered a man who
intentionally ran over a
neighbor’s dog to pay
$56,400 in damages, far
more than the fair market
value of the animal.
Last month, in a case
involving a cat called Max,
who was tortured and
killed by three men, a
state appeals court in
Washington l d th t
W hi t ruled that a
Spokane woman could
receive damages based on
Max’s emotional value
Did you hear about the post office having to cancel its commemorative issue
honoring lawyers? It seems that it was too confusing—people didn’t know which
side of the stamp to spit on.
A lawyer explaining his fees to his client: “If you want justice, it’s two hundred
dollars an hour. Obstruction of justice runs a bit more.”
There is an old story of a lawyer named Strange and his wife having a conference
as to the things he wished done after he had departed this life.
I me, dear, lawyer with
“I want a headstone put over me my dear” said the lawyer, “with the simple
inscription—‘Here lies an honest lawyer.’”
The wife expressed surprise that he did not wish his name put on the
headstone. It needful responded, for
headstone “It will not be needful,” he responded “for those who pass by and
read that inscription will invariably remark: ‘That’s Strange.’”
“Horror Stories” about the plaintiffs’ bar and personal injury attorneys:
http://www.overlawyered.org/
http://www overlawyered org/
We are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We are small
business owners, homemakers, and community volunteers.
We are lawyers who want our profession back, and plant managers who
want our companies to expand facilities to create jobs for Texans.
f from the
We are consumers who want to eliminate the wasteful "tort tax" f
products and services we pay for. We are ranchers and teachers who
have anguished over needless lawsuits.
We are doctors and nurses who have seen our colleagues abandon their
chosen professions because of the emotional and financial toll imposed
by legal assaults.
We are the citizens of Texas who want a better future for ourselves and
our children.
We’re the faces of Texas...over 13,000 individual supporters in 689
towns and cities, representing 1,203 different trades, businesses and
professions.
Leo E. Linbeck, Jr.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Linbeck Corporation, a holding company of three
construction firms, with completed projects exceeding $1.231 billion in revenues over
the past five fiscal years. Serves as a director of the Greater Houston Partnership.
Richard W. Weekley
Founded Weekley Properties, a commercial real estate brokerage firm, Weekley Homes,
and Weekley Development which develops and operates shopping centers and other real
estate investments in Texas. In 2004, sales volume exceeded $1,100,000,000.
Mr. Weekley has served on the Board of Directors of the Greater Houston Partnership,
the Board of the Metropolitan YMCA (and Past Chairman), the Board of the Federal
Branch),
Reserve Bank of Dallas (Houston Branch) and the Executive Committee of the
Governor’s Business Council.
Hugh Rice Kelly
General Counsel of Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Retired Executive Vice President and
General Counsel, Reliant Energy
Kelly joined Houston Lighting & Power Company, corporate predecessor of Reliant, as
Senior Vi P id t G lC l dC t S t i 1984 P i t j i i
S i Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in 1984. Prior to joining
HL&P, Kelly was a lawyer with the Houston firm of Baker & Botts.
March 27, 2005, 6:53PM
Texas can provide model for healthy asbestos laws
State reforms would truly benefit victims
By RICHARD WEEKLEY
Houston Chronicle Op-Ed
Solely on the merits, asbestos litigation reform should be the easiest of all tort reforms
to win enactment. It is the single most unfair and destructive abuse of the legal system
in the history of U.S. civil justice.
Litigation costs jobs !!!
Because of asbestos litigation, 72 American companies have been driven into
bankruptcy and 60,000 Americans have lost their jobs. The eventual job loss could
reach as high as 423,000 jobs.
y
Dishonest lawyers !!!
Personal injury lawyers manipulate the legal system to obtain legal fees for themselves
and money for people with no discernible illness. Those desperately ill people who are
suffering from fatal mesothelioma and debilitating asbestos-related disease now receive
pennies on the dollar in compensation because so much money has been wrongly
awarded to healthy plaintiffs and their attorneys.
Greed and corruption !!!
In an unholy alliance between a few opportunistic members of the medical community
and a handful of super-wealthy asbestos lawyers, healthy people taking chest exams
bought and paid for by law firms almost always receive positive indications of asbestos
injury
i j
Emphases and comments added…
AIMS AND GOALS OF THE TORT REFORM MOVEMENT
Conservatives “PATRONS”
CONSERVATIVE
have dominated O O S
FOUNDATIONS
the “policy
agenda” with
regard to tort NATIONAL THINK
law and the role TANKS
of juries in
America’s civil
system.
justice system
UNIVERSITIES
AND INSTITUTES
“ISSUE OR POLICY
A schematic of
ENTREPRENEURS”
ENTREPRENEURS
the
conservative
infrastructure
promoting tort
reform.
PROMOTE ISSUES OR IDEAS
ONTO MEDIA AND POLITICAL
“AGENDA” TO SHAPE POLICY
ALTERNATIVES
FOUNDATIONS –
BRADLEY…$848M http://www.bradleyfdn.org/
SMITH RICHARDSON…$712M http://www.srf.org/mission/index.php
SCAIFE FAMILY…$289M http://www.scaife.com/sarah.html
JOHN M. OLIN…$71M http://www.mediatransparency.org/funderprofile.php?funderID=7
KOCH FAMILY…$68M http://www.kochenterprises.com/default.htm
CASTLE ROCK (COORS)…$50M http://www.castlerockfoundation.org/
THINK TANKS –
AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
OO S U O
HOOVER INSTITUTION
CATO INSTITUTE
MANHATTAN INSTITUTE http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/clp.htm
HUDSON INSTITUTE
AMERICAN TORT REFORM FOUNDATION http://www.atra.org/foundation.php
UNIVERSITIES AND INSTITUTES –
GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
INTERCOLLEGIATE STUDIES INSTITUTE http://www.isi.org/
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
YALE UNIVERSITY
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
http://www.theihs.org/about/
INSTITUTE FOR HUMANE STUDIES http://www theihs org/about/
http://www.judicialwatch.org/about.shtml
Judicial Watch: One of many organizations
helping to set the agenda…
About Judicial Watch: Our Mission
Judicial Watch, Inc. was established in 1994 to serve as an ethical
and legal "watchdog" over our government, legal, and judicial
syste s and promote etu ethics and o a ty our
systems a d to p o ote a return to et cs a d morality in ou
nation's public life.
As a non-partisan, non-profit foundation based in Washington, D.C.,
country
and with offices throughout the country, Judicial Watch relies on
supporters, like you, to help us root out corruption in our government
and to make sure offenders are brought to justice.
JUDICIAL WATCH -- LETTER ASKING FOR
CONTRIBUTIONS IN THE MIDDLE 1990s
Dear F i d
D Friend:
The American legal system is dangerously corrupt.
It's picking the pockets of hard-working Americans. Putting literally
billions of dollars into the pockets of greedy lawyers, turning
neighbor against neighbor and threatening to derail the rule of law.
The U.S. has been transformed from a nation of friends and neighbors
into one of actual and potential litigants - plaintiffs and defendants.
Greedy, unprincipled lawyers have made Americans willing to
ask courts to resolve everything.
These are just some of the extreme examples of the more than 250.000
lawsuits filed in American courts each year:
“Horror Stories” from Judicial
Watch Letter
in-
A New York actress and her doctor husband pay a New Year's Eve call on his parents. Outside the in-
laws' door, the actress slips on ice and breaks her ankle. Her response?
insurance-
She sues her husband’s parents, knowing the money will come from their insurance-
company.
company.
In March of 2000, a drunk in Florida broke into and climbed a transformer, receiving 13,000 volts of
electricity.
sued ser ed company.
compan
He s ed the 6 bars that served him and the electric company.
In California, a thief who is stabbed in a bar during a holdup dies.
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His family sues the business for operating an unsafe establishment.
In Ohio, a baseball coach is sued by the parents of a high school player who claimed they were
humiliated
bench.
because their son spent too much time on the bench.
According to Judicial Watch, these horror stories
reflect…
reflect
Lawyer greed --
Mega- fees... Even when the lawyer's
Mega-trial attorneys net literally billion dollar f
time and work required is minimal; the lawyer takes a third of the
settlement.
Class action lawsuits –
Enrich lawyers while helping no one but themselves. In the overwhelming
majority of cases, the "clients" may have no complaint, and are probably not even
aware a lawsuit has been filed. Essentially the lawyers are representing
themselves.
themselves.
Activist judges --
Not content to merely interpret the law, they are making the law right on the spot.
j g p g
These judges have suspended the traditional rules of what governed our courts for
decades - allowing frivolous lawsuits and lawyer abuses that would never
before.
have been tolerated before.
Court shopping –
These days, trial lawyers choose the court that hears their case. Under the current
absurd rules, national lawsuits such as class actions can be filed in just about any
court in the country.
Last but not least…the “vicious
l ” d i t db
money cycle” as depicted by
Judicial Watch
g ,
After asking for a contribution,
Judicial Watch adds this P.S.
In his day, Abraham Lincoln urged his fellow
y
lawyers to
discourage litigation. Persuade your
neighbors to compromise whenever you can.
Point out to them how the nominal winner is
loser-
often a real loser-in fees, expenses and waste
time.
of time
I sincerely believe we can restore our ailing legal
Lincoln's ideals...
system and return to Lincoln s ideals with your
help
1. Pretrial Rulings
1. Forum shopping
2. Discovery abuse
3. Consolidation and joinder
4. Improper class action certification
5. Unfair case scheduling
2. Decisions during Trial
3. Unreasonable Expansions of Liability
4.
4 Judicial Integrity
1. Trial lawyer contributions
y
2. Cozy relations
3. Alliance between state attorney generals and personal injury
lawyers