A gentleman by the name of Bob Cardenas emailed me the other day about the state of the civil justice system in Texas. Bob does trial presentations for both plaintiffs and defendants. And Bob's business has undergone a change. Since Texas voters were hoodwinked into passing tort "reform" measures in 2004, fewer injury cases are being filed, and few of those are going to trial. So most of the business Bob gets these days is business v. business litigation, especially patent lawsuits. In other words, the reformers got their way: Texas courts are now mostly a tool for businesses to settle disputes. Injured citizens are getting shut out.
In discussing this problem, Bob wrote the following to me:
"Until a lawmaker’s child is run over by a drug taking driver of a Wal-Mart 18 wheeler and the emergency room team compounds the injury with administering the wrong treatment, will the laws stand a chance of changing back."
It's sad, but Bob is right. When tragedy strikes a lawmaker, tort "reform" no longer appeals to them. Remember former Senator Rick Santorum?
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