Posted on 05/30/2011 5:01:00 PM PDT by Dominic01
AUSTIN, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry signed into law Monday a measure that will limit frivolous lawsuits by levying some fees on plaintiffs and allowing meritless suits to be dismissed early in the process.
Perry designated the "loser pays" bill a top priority of the legislative session, saying Texas needs to crack down on junk lawsuits.
Some plaintiffs who sue and lose will be required to pay the court costs and attorney fees of those they are suing. The law also creates expedited civil actions for cases less than $100,000. It goes into effect Sept. 1...
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
I feel sorry for people who actually have a case but are afraid of losing. Attorneys will be reluctant to file suit in a lot of situations. Things are not always as they appear.
In many states, the frivolous suits are filed by inmates.
I imagine there will be some discretion. As things are now, many people are essentially "blackmailed" into paying some kind of settlement because they can't afford to fight it. I assume you've never been sued.
Lawyers are the only people who gain from frivolous lawsuits. It's getting more ridiculous every day.
They don't need to do another 911. They have BHO and company.
One of the best reforms to have occurred in the country in years!
Three cheers for Texas!!!
The British have a “loser pays” system, which is also effective in preventing frivolous lawsuits. I don’t know how Canada handles these things, but they have not the extreme tort-law situation which costs us so heavily.
In Japan, they are said to have 1/60th the number of lawyers per capita of what we support in the USA. They are doing something right.
(shrug)
Okay. I know where I stand on this.
i am happy for the regular joe that watches his auto and home insurance go through the roof because of these, dare i say, mostly, (and i can speak from experience) frivolous suits...
making the plaintiff foot the bill for frivolous lawsuits is something many of us have been screaming about for decades...if people are afraid of losing i’d say they don’t have much of a case...
“I feel sorry for people who actually have a case but are afraid of losing. Attorneys will be reluctant to file suit in a lot of situations. Things are not always as they appear.”
Oh bosh! If they really think that they have a case, then why are they afraid? Actually, they more likely feel that perhaps they should give it a try, and they figure it’s like the lottery: you risk a little (or nothing in the case of contingency lawyers), and may win big. The Texas law at least raises the price of bringing a loser case.
In fact, the Texas reform is such a good idea, that I predict that the courts will strike it down. After all, the courts are not run for poor, injured people, so much as for actors, fakes, and lawyers (the three classes to some extent overlapping).
Frankly I think that this is a step in the right direction.
I would really rather see a true “loser pays” tort reform, though.
A prospective “junk suit” client comes into an attorney's office and presents him with the suit he wants the attorney to pursue.
The attorney looks at the case, reviews it, does a little instant research and says to the legal thug “You don't have a case. You can't sue.” Case closed-—PERIOD!
Another scenario is that the prospective client comes into the attorney's office and the same routine is followed but the client is told “I feel confident that you have a case. I will represent you.”
Now, just how wrong is that????????????????????
If you need to find dishonest attorneys simply go to the two page ads in your phone book, look at billboards on the road and listen to the commercials on TV.
Need to find honest attorneys, simply look for normal sized advertisements in the phone book, NO TV ads, and NO BILLBOARD ads on the road.
Tort reform is well overdue and this is only a baby step. Much more has to be done so that the honest citizen who is damaged can recover in court verses the legal thug who splits 40/60 with his greedy and dishonest attorney by either winning a lawsuit on legal jousting (not whether the case has been proved) or by “shaking down” the defendant by simply making them settle out of court because it would be cheaper than actually protecting themselves.
Our legal system is simply an extortion system!
A cardiologist placed stents in my artery. He did something wrong. Four days later I had cardiac arrest and my heart was damaged. I couldn’t sue him because I didn’t die. No attorney would take my case because Texas law limits liability to $250,000. No insurance company will settle when they know the most they’ll lose is $250,000. And it’ll cost that much to get it to court.
I truly believe they went overboard in Austin.
I have heard that there are more lawyers within the city limits of Houston, Texas than there are in the entire country of Japan.
I would not be surprised if this were the case.
Perhaps now some of them will voluntarily leave Texas.
That would be just fine with me.
Who told you that the Dr. did something wrong?
There are also people out there that are professional suers.
If we’d see liability insurers in Texas cut their rates in response to this it would be an inspiring sight, but I bet a dozen doughnuts they won’t.
Not all debilitating bodily injuries show up glaringly on the X-ray.
So who will they blame when this has zero effect on the cost of medical care?
This sounds like a hypothetical to me.
I think the $250K cap is on non economic damages. If it costs $10 million in medical treatment to make the patient whole the patient still gets all of that. Also if the attorney bills by the hour, all of that is reimbursed too.
The cardilogist who saved my life in the ER when he adjusted the stents.
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