Jul 6, 2011 | Insurance, political parties, Tort Reform
Our Texas governor determined that an emergency session was necessary to get legislation passed which limits the amount of damages TWIA will have to pay. The main arguments they made to take away Texas citizens’ rights were:
first — the insurance company needed to be able quantify how much they would owe and they couldn’t do that under the current laws second – to keep premiums affordable.
The problem is the first issue (while true) is not a legitimate reason to take people’s right to recover their damages. If TWIA would have done the job they were supposed to do they would have been able to quantify how much they would have owed for claims. The problem is they denied legitimate claims which resulted in their policy holders having to file suit to recover the damages they were legally entitled to recover. That included recovering the damages for attorney fees and damages to punish them for their misdeeds. Those damages and fees were required by law when the company violated their duty to their policy holders.
So what do our current elected officials do to correct this violation of public trust and dishonesty by the TWIA? They protect them from legitimate claims by limiting their exposure, in effect they told them — we know you lied, cheated and stole from your policy holders, but we want to make sure that you are protected from having to pay for the mess you caused.
The only time people hire a lawyer is to help them with an insurance claim is when the company isn’t doing what they should. So your insurance company is not taking care of your claim (the claim your premiums have been paid to handle) you have to hire an attorney, you prove your case, and recover damages.
Now because of this “emergency” legislation, the damages the jury determined to be fair might be reduced. The only cases it will impact are the legitimate cases – it like all the other “tort reform” legislation has absolutely no impact on the so called frivolous cases.
The second claimed reason to keep premiums affordable is laughable.
The governor signed his “emergency” legislation and less than 24 hours the TWIA raised premiums 5% for its policy holder which is the maximum allowed. So the TWIA now has been able to limit their exposure for their own misdeeds, which increases their profits and at the same time have raised the premiums their policy holders have to pay increasing the profits even more.
Hopefully all those who determined this was an emergency have been properly rewarded for their work for TWIA.
It is unfortunate that the individual policy holders who have been and will be impacted by this legislation did not have a lobbyist, but they do have a vote and hopefully will remember how you treated their concerns and rights.
Jun 27, 2011 | Uncategorized
Tonight HBO films will air Hot Coffee at 8:00pm central time. I wrote a blog about personal responsibility on March 23 which included my view of the McDonald’s case. I had a number of people who commented that they did not realize how bad she was burned, etc. I urge everyone to watch the show, and write your opinion, comment, etc. here.
If you look at the previous blog it is pictures of the new courthouse in Fort Bend County. Sorry about the haziness, but I forgot to wipe the sea mist off the lens from my recent trip.
Finally, the latest attack on the citizens of Texas by Governor Perry and the “Tort Reform” group. I wrote about TWIA previously, now the Governor is claiming it will require an emergency session to protect the TWIA from any damages other than actual (no attorney fees, extra damages) despite their complete mismanagement and failure to pay claims. Perry does not see the fact that people cannot get their homes fixed and have to pay out of pocket for repairs and a place to live despite paying premiums for coverage. I guess it is not a problem to Perry who is living in a Hill Country Home costing taxpayers over $10k a month for the last several years as the repairs are done on the mansion. Maybe if he had pay out of pocket and fight with the insurance company he would have a different view (like how real Texans are impacted by insurance companies) rather than the view he has of how much more will they contribute to my campaign fund.
May 17, 2011 | Uncategorized
First I apologize for the length of this blog, but I do not speak in sound bites or catchy phrases which are designed to hide the true nature of the discussion.
What happens when you do such a good of a job that you are no longer needed? You create an emergency which justifies your existence. That is what is going on in the Texas legislature right now.
Texans for Lawsuit Reform have done an amazing job in reducing the rights of citizens to bring suits to recover damages. They have done such a good job that there is no further need for reform, but then they will not continue to get all their money and be able to send money to the legislature. Baylor College of Law Review did a survey to the judges of Texas and 86% of the judges said there is no need for additional tort reform.
There are currently sanctions available for stopping frivolous lawsuits, including money sanctions and even the potential to take the attorney’s license away for filing frivolous lawsuits. So the Texas House passes a law which is a one-way street, if a small business or individual loses to a defendant they could owe them all their attorney fees and expenses, but if the same small business or individual wins the defendant is not responsible for to pay them their attorney fees and expenses. Is that fair?
Why would our representatives pass such a bill? Who has contributed to their campaign funds?
If the Senate passes this we will have a one way loser pays law, but it is even stranger than that. If the same small business or individual wins, but wins less than what the defendant has offered they can still be responsible for paying the defendants’ fees and expenses.
Here is an example of what could happen (thanks to Mark Lanier) a young woman eight months pregnant who is on her way to work when she is hit by a tractor trailer driver who ran a red light, and is in violation of Federal standards regarding hours and medications. He slams into the young woman’s car injuring her. She is rushed to the hospital where she is treated for her injuries. Unfortunately her unborn baby is killed. She brings a case against the truck driver and his company. They offer to pay her medical, lost wages and a little something for her pain, but refuse to offer anything for killing her baby. The Court rules that under Texas law she can not recover for the death of her baby. This young woman who has suffered the death of her child could now have to pay the very persons who caused the death of her child all their attorney fees and expenses.
The time for Texans for Lawsuit Reform has come and gone. Their only function now is to continually come up with new “emergencies” to justify their existence and fund raising. While teachers, police, fire fighters, sanitation workers, etc. are being laid off and our cities and towns are suffering from real emergencies from budgetary issues and wildfires, our legislature is wasting time on an issue which does not exist except in the pocketbooks of those that fund them. When the same judges who said there was no need for any tort reform were asked if they had even seen a frivolous case, less than half had ever seen even one.
There are always two sides to a case – the company or person brings the claim and the person or company defending it. Just as there is a potential for a frivolous case being brought there are frivolous defenses which require cases to be filed rather than settled.
Some examples of frivolous defenses include an insurance company which has in-house lawyers getting paid if they are defending cases or not, and implements a policy to deny virtually every case which of course results in lawsuits having to be filed. All of which could have been avoided if the company had simply fairly evaluated the claims for settlement.
Another example is the uninsured coverage you have on your vehicle which you have to use when you are hit by a drunk driver who has no coverage. You make your claim, but the insurance company denies it because the current status of the law in Texas. The insurance company does not owe anything until a judgment is entered and even then all they will ever owe is the amount of the policy, no attorney fees, expenses, etc. So there is no downside to denying virtually every claim. The worst case is that they owe what they should have paid in the beginning, but by raising the cost of litigation through filing fees, depositions, etc. they can essentially blackmail their own insured into taking less because they will end up with less than the policy once they have to pay the litigation costs.
This law would have a chilling effect on the small company who sues to get paid for the work they have done and gets met with an army of defense lawyers who drag the case out and make it as expensive as possible to the point where their only option is to give up rather than continuing to pay legal fees and expenses even though they are right. Under the House bill they would not only owe their own lawyers, but those of the other side. It could result in a decision just to take the loss even though the debt is justly owed since to pursue the claim might result in bankruptcy.
Another aspect of the proposed law which is overlooked is what could happen with health insurance cost. If you are injured in a crash who should pay your medical bills and lost wages? The person that caused the wreck, of course, but under this law there will be many times where it would be a better course of action not to take the risk and just let your own health insurance and disability coverage pay for your loss. So what happens — the costs for us all go up because rather than have the person responsible pay we all will be paying. As the system exists if you recover for your injuries from the other person responsible for the wreck, your health coverage will generally get their money back under a subrogation claim. That allows them to provide coverage at a “reasonable” rate. What do you think will happen when they do not have the opportunity to recover their money? Will they just eat the extra cost or pass them on to us the consumer?
So again I come back to where is the emergency here? Is it just that Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) needs to refill their coffers and justify their existence? It is even more concerning that our representatives and governor have gotten so used to the TLR money that they do not want to let it go even at the expense of all the true issues facing Texas today.
May 11, 2011 | Uncategorized
Galveston, Brazoria, Harris, Fort Bend, and most residents near the coast have first hand experience with wind and flood damage caused by high winds and hurricanes. For that last few years a large number of residents in these counties and others have been trying to get their homes repaired and/or get reimbursed by their insurance company for the damages they suffered. The TWIA has undervalued claims, delayed payment and generally made a mockery of the whole reason why people purchase insurance, to pay for claims when you have suffered a loss.
What has the insurance commission done during all this time, not a lot. Instead all those people who paid their premiums for coverage, had to turn to trial lawyers. TWIA has been found by juries to have underpaid claims and as such should be held responsible for the damages, including attorneys fees and expenses. The loser pays right, not exactly. The same House which touted loser pays (which is actually a loser or possibly even the winner pays if it is the party bringing the claim) now praises their newest House Insurance Protection Event (HIPE).
Their solution for the actions of TWIA is to make those who they have cheated to have to go before a commission selected by (you guessed it) the Texas Department of Insurance. So the department that has basically ignored the problems faced by policy holders is now going to be the group to appoint a commission to administer claims. Of course another provision would limit damages and recoveries of those harmed by the actions of the TWIA.
I guess this another one of those “emergencies” that had to be addressed instead of education, budgets, etc. It is probably also just coincidence that it came up right after another jury found against the TWIA and their practices.
What happened to less government and personal responsibility? It seems like the House has determined that since no one appears to be paying attention to what is going on in Austin they will just pass every law they can to take away the rights of the citizens of Texas.
As long as they can throw in a “trial lawyer” “frivolous lawsuit” claim they believe that you will just agree with them, at least until it impacts you and by then it is too late. A certain segment appears to have complete faith in a jury to determine whether someone should be put to death in a murder case, but unable to determine if a individual or company should be responsible for the damages from injuring another.
I am anxious to hear the justification on why you do or do not agree with the latest attack on our jury system and rights as Texans.
