Judge Roy Bean is the "Law West of the Pecos" after all.
Posted on 12/26/2005 12:58:27 PM PST by SwinneySwitch
EDINBURG — A national lawsuit reform association has named the Rio Grande Valley as the country’s worst "Judicial Hellhole" for 2005.
The Rio Grande Valley and Texas’ Gulf Coast collectively topped the American Tort Reform Association’s list of regions in which courts have a "disproportionately harmful impact on civil litigation." The organization issued its report Dec. 13.
Plaintiff attorneys seek out the six locations on the list because they are known for jurors who return large verdicts, according to the report.
In fact, local court cases this year have begun to indicate plaintiffs find ways to try many of their cases in the Valley, even if the parties involved live elsewhere, or the incident in question happened outside the Valley. This is because the area has begun to build a reputation for sympathetic, big dollar jury verdicts on the plaintiff’s behalf — affecting local taxpayers who help cover court costs.
The report claims the Valley, including Hidalgo County, continues to "be considered unfair to civil defendants even after Texas’ enactment of comprehensive civil justice reform in 2003." Tort reform groups have long blamed civil lawsuits for rising health insurance costs to the consumer, and have waged a successful campaign in Texas to cap non-economic medical malpractice damages by claiming medical practices will shut down across the state if lawsuits continue to garner such high payouts.
The American Tort Reform Association was founded in 1986 by the American Medical Association and the American Consulting Engineers Counsel to Council, two groups that are often defendants in civil action.
A group that pushed for a constitutional amendment capping medical malpractice verdicts in 2003 said the survey showed the area’s civil litigation system needs repairs.
"We got the medical liability under control, but jurors here are still giving away the farm," said Bill Summers, president of Rio Grande Valley Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. "Lawsuit reforms have helped the area, but it’s still not all the way helped. There are still things that need to be fixed and there might have been things we went overboard on. It all boils down to we need fairness in the judicial system."
Summers attributes large-sum verdicts local jurors return to area residents who feel sympathy for plaintiffs suing large companies. While those injured unfairly are entitled to seek legal relief, jurors are going overboard in their monetary rewards, he said.
"We sure don’t want to get (the number one designation) again next year. Things are getting better but there are a few rogue attorneys that make things look bad for the region. Most of all we have good attorneys in the Valley," Summers said.
But local plaintiff attorneys dismiss the findings as "propaganda" the insurance industry is pushing.
"I think their motive is un-American, because what they want is no accountability under the law," said John Escamilla, an attorney for the Watts Law Firm and a member of the Hidalgo County Bar Association’s board of directors.
Escamilla has represented plaintiffs in several product liability cases against Ford Motor Co. and other large companies.
"What they’ve done is attacked the foundation of our justice system, which is a right to a trial by a jury of your peers," Escamilla said. "They don’t trust juries."
Because tort reform groups don’t trust juries, they have spent millions lobbying the state Legislature to change the law and take power away from juries. They also "scare citizens with propaganda," he said.
"It’s interesting they use the term ‘greedy plaintiff’s lawyers’ and they don’t ever talk about greedy corporations," he said. "I think the public has seen just how greedy these corporate executives can be. The jury system is the only system we have to hold things in balance."
Judicial Hellholes 2005 is available on ATRA’s website at www.atra.org.
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Shouldn't corporations be tried by a jury of corporations then, Escamilla??
I've heard this. It seems as if Texas has the best and the worst.
Mississippi ping
Not even showing
Thank You Haley.
http://www.atra.org/reports/hellholes/
Voters want change. In recent years, voters have ousted judges who have had a hand in bringing out-of-control litigation to their states. Illinois voters rejected a Madison County judge for a position on the state Supreme Court, while Mississippians elected state Supreme Court justices who campaigned against out-of-control litigation. West Virginians ousted incumbent Justice Warren McGraw who was widely considered to be part of the lawsuit abuse problem in the state.
South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley is a whole other state than the rest of TX. It is infested with Rats. The rest of TX (with the exception of Travis County) is solid GOP territory.
Yup--the three small blue areas in an otherwise bright red state. Kinda sad--It's unions along the coast, Mexicans in the valley, and the liberal University of Texas and all the liberal riff raff that brings into Travis County.
Yes, that much I know.
lower that snooty nose of yours a tad, please. It was rats that handed Bush Cameron County and Bush also got about 50% of the vote in Hidalgo County. is graft and corruption worse in the county or in D.C.? politics corrupts absolutely.
The only important fight is the fight for venue (whether the case should be moved to Houston, San Antonio, etc.).
You lose that fight, and the only question is how many millions will you be ordered to pay. Your only hope in a case tried in the Valley is to get a reversal on appeal.
The Democrats that vote for Republicans are not the politically connected and politically active Rats. They are the good people who happen to be too busy working and living life to change their affiliation.
In TX, one cannot "change affiliation" unless he votes in the primary of the "other party." This can be done only in March or April of even years.
I concur. As a registered democrat, I have no qualms whatsoever in voting for the best man. My president, George W. Bush, may not be the best president ever, but he sure is the best man to be president now.
so then you are saying it's the lawyers who create the judicial hellhole? the Ha'va'd and Eli's who manipulate the system, the winners and losers, or the jury?
The juries are just pawns, but they know who the power players are in the courtroom.
I won't name names, but I wouldn't want to be a local juror who held out against the case presented by a prominent Laredo attorney.
wasn't it mexicans in the valley that gave Cameron County to George Bush. Isn't Cameron Country a red county? what the heck is wrong with those Mexicans?
True.
Judge Roy Bean is the "Law West of the Pecos" after all.
aren't the local barristers just tokens employed by the corporations?
in the valley, it's Judge Roy Beaner.
Voters want change. In recent years, voters have ousted judges who have had a hand in bringing out-of-control litigation to their states. Illinois voters rejected a Madison County judge for a position on the state Supreme Court, while Mississippians elected state Supreme Court justices who campaigned against out-of-control litigation. West Virginians ousted incumbent Justice Warren McGraw who was widely considered to be part of the lawsuit abuse problem in the state.
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GOOD START NOT ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The problem is that in the last about 10 years, we have many Mexican immigrants who are here with their hands out, and will vote for the person who they think will hand out the most goodies.
This is why, IMHO, the Valley has turned blue.
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