Texas law is mix and match on plaintiffs recovery of costs and fees. In breach of contract actions and most statutory tort actions (stock and real estate fraud, DTPA, etc.) the right to seek costs and fees is explicitly set out.
In common law tort claims, costs and fees can be included in an instruction covering permissible factors to be considered in awarding punitive damages, but there is no severable right to seek recovery.
And no, plaintiffs right to recovery wasn't part of the proposal. The idea seemed to be that plaintiffs were otherwise entitled to seek punitives (which, of course, are now statutorily limited). Appearances to the contrary, we're not really known down here for our political savvy.
The idea seemed to be that plaintiffs were otherwise entitled to seek punitives (which, of course, are now statutorily limited).
Aha. So the proposal in question would have allowed (successful) corporate defendants to seek full recovery of all their legal fees and costs from (losing) individual plaintiffs, but it presumed that (successful) plaintiffs could fold the recovery of their own fees and costs into their damages, even though their punitives are now capped under tort reform and there's no separate recovery for legal fees.
Yes indeed, I might have a wee issue or two with that ;-).