Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas

WAOI News
December 15, 2009

By Jim Forsyth

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

It's good not to be considered a 'hell hole.'  

For the first time ever, 1200 WOAI news reports four counties in the Rio Grande Valley and three along the Texas Gulf Coast area have been removed from the list of so called 'judicial hell holes,' designated by the American Tort Reform Foundation as counties where greedy out-of-state lawyers could file junk lawsuits, in expectation of getting a huge jury verdict jackpot.  

Throughout the 1990s, lawyers from around the country were rushing to Texas to file personal injury or product liability lawsuits against corporations in Jefferson, Brazoria, Cameron, Nueces, Zapata, Hidalgo and Starr Counties, clogging up the courts, forcing local residents into repeated bouts of jury duty, because those counties had a reputation of forking over huge payouts, largely, according to Darrin McKinney of the foundation, due to the biases of the judges.  

"It is  the judge who decides what evidence will be introduced," he said.  "It is the judge who decides how the jury will be charged."  

The Foundation credits the sweeping tort reforms approved by the legislature and the voters back in 2003, which limited damages for so called 'pain and suffering' in many cases. 

McKinney also credits a new awareness on the part of judges, jurors, and the public about the dangers posed by junk lawsuits.  

"It is this runaway litigation in this country that many of our global competitors do not have to factor into their pricing," McKinney said, pointing out that the costs of outlandish jury verdicts are passed along to customers. 

He says these verdicts have also led to the expensive practice of constant warning labels.  He says he recently purchased a six foot long extension cord from a home supply center, and discovered five separate warning labels attached to the cord, including a warning 'not to trip over it.'  

"People are realizing how their taxpayer dollars are squandered, how their consumer prices are inflated, and how their access to health care is impaired by lawsuit abuse."  

The Foundation did not consider Texas' controversial partisan election of judges in its 'hell holes' report, but many observers have pointed out that when judges who hear civil litigation are elected in contested races, it is the law firms which plan to have business before those judges who are most likely to donate to their campaigns.

 

  The Foundation says South Florida, West Virginia, Chicago and Atlantic City New Jersey are the 'perennial' hell holes. 

It says the seven Texas counties are no longer on the list, but are 'on the cusp, and may easily fall back into the hell holes abyss.'