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 ...
Well hell - I guess all of those businesses who leave states or move to states based on their litigation climate don’t know as much about it as you do.
Yes it was. The idiot put the coffee between her legs and opened it and spilled it. Coffee is supposed to be hot.
“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.”
Facts are lost on people like you.
And people like you think that someone should be rewarded for being clumsy and spilling a hot beverage.
I hear that there are ALOT of unemployed lawyers out there, what with this bad economy and all. Why should lawyers fees remain high? Isn’t the legal “market” a free market?
If a lawyer just out of law school is struggling to make payments on his/her student loans, why not charge less per hour? Lots of legal business should come their way, for those with significantly lower hourly fees.
The fact of the matter is, as it stands, that the US cannot afford its legal system.
McDonalds used to be acknowledged as the BEST place to stop for coffee because it was hot rather then the barely warm brew that passed for coffee in other places.
I am sorry the lady was stupid. But what I really regret is that buying a good hot cup of coffee is now impossible because she was stupid.
Now every bodies coffee sucks. McDonalds a little less because they actually clean their machines, I wonder what lawsuit they will come up with to get them to stop doing that?
Yes it was. Putting hot coffee between your legs is stupid and they were rewarded for it.
Which is why I believe the following need to be implemented across the country. Two things that would help curb the scumbag lawyers:
Of course, neither of these concepts will even get a fair hearing, as the lawyers make our laws, interpret our laws, and judge our laws. No matter what part of the constitution the lawyers uphold, they turn a blind eye to those parts their brethren are actively undermining.
The law sounds - and is a winner, IMO.
Many times threats of a high-cost but frivolous lawsuit are used to force a company to settle or cease an activity. Environmentalists come to mind.
Punitive damages to the state encourages the state to apply/encourage/ease/increase punitive damages as a means of funding itself. Then you get another situation like you have now, where cops prey on unsuspecting motorists in order to fund their own pensions, to a net detriment to the public as a whole.
“Punitive Damages revert to the State —”...this would be a complete nightmare. If I understand what you are suggesting, the government courts would hear the case and decide on the verdict and then collect the extra money. I can see it now...line items in government budgets as to how much each judge is expected to add to the “public treasury”. As a result, the cases that have the largest potential for money coming into the government would be heard to the exclusion of others...would make the judicial system more of a pick pocket then anything else.
Well, I’m glad the woman won.
thank you for saying what I was going to point out about that comment against loser pays. Loser pays ensures that only cases that someone believes in enough to take the risk of paying will be filed, thus eliminating a large number of speculative or frivolous lawsuits. A question I have is how it works in practice. Suppose you are a plaintiff with not a lot of money. If you file a slip and fall case, is the lawyer on the hook for the fees if the plaintiff loses? If not, what is to stop the plaintiff from filing BK if he loses? Is there a procedure for assuring that a plaintiff has the funds for paying if he loses? If not, it doesn’t really do much to keep people of limited assets from continuing to file their claims, but I bet it sure increases the number of compromise settlements from businesses and people who have assets.
Democrat talking point alert.
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