Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas

April 1, 2010

This morning the Central Texas Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse (“CALA”) hosted an informative breakfast exchange with Congressman Lamar Smith (R-21). More than 50 community supporters attended the event  at El Arroyo in Austin, Texas.

Smith, one of the top most influential people in Washington and  the ranking Republican member of the Judiciary Committee, addressed several issues including the recent health care legislation.  Smith noted that the national bill did not include any of the legal reforms that have been critical to increasing the number of doctors practicing in rural and underserved areas as specialists in Texas.

He said current leadership ignored estimates from the  Congressional Budget Office which found that capping damages in medical malpracitce lawsuits – like Texas has done – would result in a $54 billion in savings to the national health care system.  He added that those funds could easily be used to provide health insurance for the underinsured without raising taxes on those who already have insurance policies.   Additionally, Smith said that according to the CBO, under a Republican healthcare tort reform bill called the HEALTH Act, “premiums for medical malpractice insurance ultimately would be an average of 25 percent to 30 percent below their current cost.”

Stephanie Gibson, Executive Director of the Central Texas CALA, noted that, in passing their health care bill, Congressional leaders not only failed to include critical legal reforms but also inserted language allowing personal injury lawyers to “opt-out” of any liability system. Smith noted that at least one Democratic leader, former  Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean, has candidly admitted why legal reforms have failed at the national level:  “…the reason why tort reform is not in the bill is because the people who wrote it did not want to take on the trial lawyers in addition to everybody else they were taking on, and that is the plain and simple truth.”

Smith noted that a Harvard School of Public Health study indicated that 40 percent of medical malpractice suits filed in the U.S. are “without merit” and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ study found that unlimited excessive damages add between $70 and $126 billion annually to health care costs.

As the author of the Lawsuit Abuse Reduction Act, Smith, worked diligently to amend Federal Rull 11 to require that lawyers who file frivolous lawsuits face mandatory sanctions for bringing unjustified lawsuits. Both this legislation and the Health Act passed the House but were stalled in the Senate.

“I am proud of Texas for enacting refoms in 2003 which attracted more than 14,000 new doctors to our state,” Smith said today.  “Texas has set a precedent for the need of national legislation to deter frivolous malpractice suits while still assuring adequate compensation for those injured by negligence.”

In agreement, Gibson stated that reforms have clearly helped our state from our health care system to our business climate and we cannot allow personal injury lawyers to chip away at the changes we’ve made in Texas. We are already struggling to maintain the jobs we have that support our families and our local economies. As the U.S. weathers its worst economic crisis in a generation, attention to the negative consequences of frivolous lawsuits is critical.

Smith closed his remarks by asking the group not to give up and thanked Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas for their efforts to ensure our courts are used for justice, not greed.