Posted on 09/04/2011 10:59:33 AM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
Perry made loser pays the law of the land in Texas by signing H.B. 274 in May.
... loser pays makes the legal system more objective and legitimate. “The procedural protections … go a long way toward ensuring that our judicial system dispenses justice according to the merits of the case rather than the size of the wallet,” ...
This is not the first time Mr. Perry has tackled necessary pro-growth tort reform. (...) Perry’s landmark 2003 medical liability reforms, which established a burden of proof for punitive damages similar to criminal law by requiring a unanimous jury verdict and capped noneconomic damages at $750,000. A 2008 report by the Perryman Group found those reforms to be directly responsible for an immediate first-year influx of almost 2,000 new physicians into Texas as well as a 70 percent drop in lawsuits against hospitals. The Texas Public Policy Foundation estimates that the state has netted more than 25,000 doctors since. (...) Texas doctors saw medical liability insurance rates decline by an average of more than 21 percent, with some seeing nearly a 50 percent rate cut. Those savings enabled hospitals to expand charity care by 24 percent. Three years after these lawsuit reforms, Texas became the first state ever to be removed from the American Medical Association’s list of states experiencing a liability crisis.
... After Texas was rated as the top state in which to do business for the past seven years by CEO Magazine, it was hard for some to imagine how to make Texas an even more attractive place for employers to create jobs. Yet, with the passage of loser pays, Mr. Perry has found a way to do just that. There is a strong case to be made that Perry-style reforms could help revive the sluggish national economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Interesting...I like Perry more and more every day....
“Loser pays” is a winner for lawyers... nobody cares how high the lawyer fee is if they expect the other side to pay it. The average hourly cost of a lawyer in the US is $284/hour. This puts litigation - as either plaintiff or defendant - out of the reach of the vast majority of Americans. Who has $50,000 to risk rolling the dice on whether a jury of the stupidest people that can be found is going to come to a just and correct decision on a case?
This is great until you or someone you care about becomes a plaintiff.
Without "loser pays" the libs would be suing the oil companies out of business with each new oil well they install.
Well, if the loser pays, and one believes is our system of justice, I would assume the plaintiff would be the winner - unless of course they actually did break the law to find themselves in court in the first place.
Enough with this hot coffee becoming the lottery ticket for life.
Anything that can prevent lawyers from being enriched off the backs of everyone else...I’m for.
I would say it's been at that point for quite some time already. What say you?
The worm in the apple.
OTOH, this is how the vast majority of legal systems in the world work.
When a politician speaks during a presidential campaign, do the words, by themselves, really have any meaning?
I agree. But awards of attorney’s fees have also been in place for quite some time as well. Overall, the outrageous expense of having one’s day in court puts the courts out of the reach of the vast majority of Americans - lawyer’s fees on a single case can easily wipe out the average American family’s life savings.
There is a lot of hype about the McDonalds’ scalding coffee case. No one is in favor of frivolous cases of outlandish results; however, it is important to understand some points that were not reported in most of the stories about the case. McDonalds coffee was not only hot, it was scalding — capable of almost instantaneous destruction of skin, flesh and muscle. Here’s the whole story.
Stella Liebeck of Albuquerque, New Mexico, was in the passenger seat of her grandson’s car when she was severely burned by McDonalds’ coffee in February 1992. Liebeck, 79 at the time, ordered coffee that was served in a styrofoam cup at the drivethrough window of a local McDonalds.
After receiving the order, the grandson pulled his car forward and stopped momentarily so that Liebeck could add cream and sugar to her coffee. (Critics of civil justice, who have pounced on this case, often charge that Liebeck was driving the car or that the vehicle was in motion when she spilled the coffee; neither is true.) Liebeck placed the cup between her knees and attempted to remove the plastic lid from the cup. As she removed the lid, the entire contents of the cup spilled into her lap.
The sweatpants Liebeck was wearing absorbed the coffee and held it next to her skin. A vascular surgeon determined that Liebeck suffered full thickness burns (or third-degree burns) over 6 percent of her body, including her inner thighs, perineum, buttocks, and genital and groin areas. She was hospitalized for eight days, during which time she underwent skin grafting. Liebeck, who also underwent debridement treatments, sought to settle her claim for $20,000, but McDonalds refused.
During discovery, McDonalds produced documents showing more than 700 claims by people burned by its coffee between 1982 and 1992. Some claims involved third-degree burns substantially similar to Liebecks. This history documented McDonalds’ knowledge about the extent and nature of this hazard.
McDonalds also said during discovery that, based on a consultants advice, it held its coffee at between 180 and 190 degrees fahrenheit to maintain optimum taste. He admitted that he had not evaluated the safety ramifications at this temperature. Other establishments sell coffee at substantially lower temperatures, and coffee served at home is generally 135 to 140 degrees.
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/cur78.htm
That was not a frivolous lawsuit.
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This is one of the really good things Perry has done here in Texas, and I fully acknowledge it. He’s done a number of good things, which are feathers in his cap. Unfortunately, I tend to regard them as being offset by some equally rotten things he’s done or attempted to do, which I why I really have absolutely no enthusiasm for him as a candidate. But I won’t dismiss the positives.
Hell of an idea! I hope President Palin helps take it national! ;)
I hate to rain on anyone’s parade but loser pays started with GWB not Rick Perry - he made some upgrades but those legal actions and tort reform happened while he was still a democrat. (i’m kidding about his party affilication, but not the the tort reform)
A winner for lawyers? Are you serious???????
You miss the point entirely. This is about reducing the number of no risk frivolous suits that are brought - period. And the result? Businesses are flocking to Texas because unnecessary litigation is a huge killer of legitimate businesses.
It’s really hard to have any true conservative bona fides and be against this. It’s not perfect,but it’s a huge improvement on our tort system. HUGE.
This has been my #1 dream for years! A “loser pays” system is awesome!!
I simply think the main problem in the litigation industry is the overall cost rather than who pays for it. An average lawyer shouldn’t cost the economy a half million per year plus. Loser pays is a fine principle, but the fact is the lawyers costs are excessive (as in 8th Amendment “excessive fines” excessive) and you can still lose a case even if you are 100% correct on the facts, the law and the merits of the case.
Because the costs are so high, the prudent risk management course for someone being sued is to settle, regardless of whether they are in the right or wrong! And that is the main problem with litigation today, not the question of who pays for it.
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