Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas state legislature want the rest of the country to hear this message loud and clear: The Lone Star State is open for business.
In a unanimous vote last week, the Texas senate adopted loser pays tort-reform legislation, which says that a plaintiff must pay the winning partys legal fees if their complaint is judged to be groundless. On Wednesday, the Texas house concurred. Governor Perry, who had championed the legislation from its inception, signed it Monday night.
The Wall Street Journal editorialized, This Texas upgrade will build on reforms in 2003 and 2005 that have vastly improved the legal climate in what has not coincidentally become the countrys best state for job creation. Texas rewrote everything from class-action certification to product liability and I would add the states medical-malpractice reforms to that list.
No wonder the nations CEOs list Texas as the best state for business.
The success of loser pays is destined to be viewed as a key victory for the Republican legislature over a group that once enjoyed almost limitless influence in the state: the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, which lobbied aggressively against the law. Prior to the reforms instituted in 2003 and 2005, Texas was an ambulance chasers paradise. Nowadays, even the $13 million the trial lawyers spent to defeat Perry and other pro-tort-reform Republicans in the 2010 election had little impact. In a stunning rebuke, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst stared down the trial lawyer lobby and shepherded the measure through to a 310 vote in the Senate.
Perry is blazing an important trail for other governors such as South Carolinas Nikki Haley, Pennsylvanias Tom Corbett, Floridas Rick Scott, Oklahomas Mary Fallin, and Alabamas Robert Bentley, all of who ran and won while proposing similar legal-reform ideas.
Why are these types of reforms so important?
The cost of tort litigation is strangling the U.S. and small businesses in particular. According to Marie Gryphon of the Manhattan Institute, the cost of tort litigation topped $247 billion in 2006. The National Federation of Independent Business estimates that tort litigation costs small businesses over $105 billion annually, $35 billion of which comes out of their pockets, not insurance.
Loser pays reform will result in fewer frivolous lawsuits, lower litigation costs, and more expedient justice for legitimate claims. Just as important, the passage of loser pays is yet another example of how Texas has taken the national lead in job creation and the fostering of a strong business climate. Immediately following Perrys earlier reforms, the number of physicians applying to practice rose by 60 percent, filling a increasing need across the state, according to the Journal. Likewise, by tossing off the threatening shroud of frivolous lawsuits, Texas is removing yet another barrier to small business expansion and job growth.
âLoser Pays,â Texas Small Business Wins - By Stephen DeMaura - The Corner - National Review Online
this most be why Texas added 265300 net jobs, out of the 722200 nationwide.
hope more states do this it will save jobs.
In a unanimous vote last week, the Texas senate adopted loser pays tort-reform legislation, which says that a plaintiff must pay the winning partys legal fees if their complaint is judged to be groundless. On Wednesday, the Texas house concurred. Governor Perry, who had championed the legislation from its inception, signed it Monday night.
The Wall Street Journal editorialized, This Texas upgrade will build on reforms in 2003 and 2005 that have vastly improved the legal climate in what has not coincidentally become the countrys best state for job creation. Texas rewrote everything from class-action certification to product liability and I would add the states medical-malpractice reforms to that list.
No wonder the nations CEOs list Texas as the best state for business.
The success of loser pays is destined to be viewed as a key victory for the Republican legislature over a group that once enjoyed almost limitless influence in the state: the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, which lobbied aggressively against the law. Prior to the reforms instituted in 2003 and 2005, Texas was an ambulance chasers paradise. Nowadays, even the $13 million the trial lawyers spent to defeat Perry and other pro-tort-reform Republicans in the 2010 election had little impact. In a stunning rebuke, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst stared down the trial lawyer lobby and shepherded the measure through to a 310 vote in the Senate.
Perry is blazing an important trail for other governors such as South Carolinas Nikki Haley, Pennsylvanias Tom Corbett, Floridas Rick Scott, Oklahomas Mary Fallin, and Alabamas Robert Bentley, all of who ran and won while proposing similar legal-reform ideas.
Why are these types of reforms so important?
The cost of tort litigation is strangling the U.S. and small businesses in particular. According to Marie Gryphon of the Manhattan Institute, the cost of tort litigation topped $247 billion in 2006. The National Federation of Independent Business estimates that tort litigation costs small businesses over $105 billion annually, $35 billion of which comes out of their pockets, not insurance.
Loser pays reform will result in fewer frivolous lawsuits, lower litigation costs, and more expedient justice for legitimate claims. Just as important, the passage of loser pays is yet another example of how Texas has taken the national lead in job creation and the fostering of a strong business climate. Immediately following Perrys earlier reforms, the number of physicians applying to practice rose by 60 percent, filling a increasing need across the state, according to the Journal. Likewise, by tossing off the threatening shroud of frivolous lawsuits, Texas is removing yet another barrier to small business expansion and job growth.
âLoser Pays,â Texas Small Business Wins - By Stephen DeMaura - The Corner - National Review Online
this most be why Texas added 265300 net jobs, out of the 722200 nationwide.
hope more states do this it will save jobs.