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 ...
“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.”
Get his license pulled. If not possible, then there is a problem in that area and it needs to be fixed.
“Or, the attorney takes on the case with no hope of winning or even getting an out-of-court settlement, simply to get fees from the plaintiff - who may not even realize that he has a bad case. So my proposal is not for a ‘loser pays’ system, but for a ‘loser’s lawyer pays’ system.”
An important point is that we now graduate two or three law school graduates for every lawyer slot available. In other words, there really isn’t much to stop an otherwise non-working attorney from filing a lawsuit on the slightest chance of a settlement. Hopefully this law makes them think a bit harder.
(i.e., search Google on “Law School Scam”, to see just how bad it is now)
In Texas, we routinely have attorneys who sue only to get a settlement, knowing that a smaller suit to settle than actually fight. Now, a sued individual can push to have it declared frivilous and get paid for costs incurred.
This will push back against plaintiff attorneys.
Sounds great to me. It is a bit odd that I never heard of this bill...given that I live in Houston.
Maybe we can put the trial lawyers to work suing the teachers unions because our children are not being adequately educated. Wouldn’t that be fun to watch?
It appears you imagine correctly...
"may recover reasonable attorney's fees"
[snip]
if the claim is for:
(1) rendered services;
(2) performed labor;
(3) furnished material;
(4) freight or express overcharges;
(5) lost or damaged freight or express;
(6) killed or injured stock;
(7) a sworn account; or
(8) an oral or written contract.
That may be a tough sell. It would almost certainly have to be an issue DURING the procedure.
Otherwise it sounds a little like ‘I paid a mechanic to put a NO2 system on my car, a week later a got a knock in my motor.
However. I will say. Medical malpractice should NEVER be limited. Yes, the system, ANY SYSTEM, is abused. But, I’ve seen too much of what can happen from unskilled or distracted medical professionals.
A great f**k the shyster law! Brian Loncar and Jim Adler didn’t get sh!t for Joe Blow because in their frivolous TV ads, they are likely to get a fee for referring the case to Joe$h!t the guy who just passed the Bar Exam (a great song by the Derailers, btw). It’s time the shysters have to put up as many disclaimers as the companies selling drugs.
Watch shyster tv ads in Texas and it makes you want to puke, especially that slimy guy pushing Ikeattorney.com. Most of those guys smell worse than your average septic tank (makes you admire used car salesmen at the local chopshop). We need a law requiring the majority of Bar disciplinary committees to be comprised of the general public rather than their shyster buddies.
Gov. Goodhair was right about this one!
Interesting perspective. Out of curiosity, do you believe a patient is ever justified in suing a physician or hospital? If so, what if the harm they suffer exceeds the dollar amount of an arbitrary damages cap?
Of course. Don't be ridiculous. However, the grounds for such suits should be well-founded, and the loser should pay the prevailing parties costs. Also, I think there should be professional jurors, so they can't be scammed by the likes of John Edwards and others like him. Rules like these would cut out a lot of the frivolous lawsuits.
If so, what if the harm they suffer exceeds the dollar amount of an arbitrary damages cap?
There is no "arbitrary damages cap" and there will never be one. However, there should be caps on the nonquantifiable "pain and suffering".
Your point seemed to be an insinuation that Perry signed the bill purely as political grandstanding rather than because of the bill’s tremendous merit in the arena of rational thought.
Other than that, I’m not sure what your point was, other than grandstanding against Perry... in large, boldface font, no less.
I agree. I hope you are doing better now.
How many times have you filed a lawsuit?
It would be a waste of time to sue me.
That would certainly be taken into account by the defense, if it were true.
Do you have any information from doctors proving this? I think making use of medical testing is a good thing. Helps with specific diagnosis, I would think.
Why are you so sure he has “misinformation”? You sound pretty cold-blooded. People like you give conservatives a bad name.
Many of the plaintiffs in frivolous lawsuits will have no assets. For this to work, the plaintiff's LAWYER must be personally liable for costs in any lawsuit declared frivolous.
There should be three possible verdicts in a civil lawsuit: finding for the plaintiff, finding for the defendant, and declaring the lawsuit frivolous. In the latter case, the filing lawyer needs to pay to teach him to know better.
Also, possible awards in personal injury lawsuits need to be capped to avoid the "jackpot" mentality. In cases where large punitive damages are appropriate, the money goes to the state's general fund, NOT to the plaintiff.
Now you got it, and damn skippy. The Perry worship around here was getting stupid.
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