Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas

Contact: Kirsten Voinis (512-922-7141)
April 30, 2007

Despite significant reforms to Texas’ legal system, the state continues to rank as one of the 10 worst legal climates in the country, according to a recent report by the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform. Texas ranked 44th on several measures in the 2007 report; the state was ranked 43rd in 2006.

“Despite real progress in fighting lawsuit abuse in Texas, a handful of rogue jurisdictions continue to land the Lone Star State on lists of notoriously bad legal climates,” said Kirsten Voinis, executive director of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas (CALA). “Procedural rulings that defy Texas law and safe havens for some personal injury lawyers tarnish the reputation of the entire state.”

According to the U.S. Chamber, the Rio Grande Valley and the Gulf Coast are still regarded as unfair legal environments due to the higher number of lawsuits, large awards and unfair day-to-day practices in terms of class certification, discovery, evidentiary rulings and jury instructions.

“While we hear time and again comments from personal injury lawyers that reforms have gone too far, their claims ring false and hallow in the face of the opinion of more than 1,500 experienced attorneys from around the country who continue to view Texas as one of the 10 worst legal climates in the nation,” Voinis said. “These experienced attorneys question the fairness and impartiality of our system. Continued proclamations that certain areas of Texas are a ‘plaintiff’s paradise,’ coupled with the antics in various judicial hellhole jurisdictions, contribute strongly to the real and perceived impression that you can’t get a fair shake in Texas.”

The 2007 State Liability Systems Ranking Study was conducted by Harris Interactive for ILR. The survey, now in its sixth year, polled more than 1,599 senior attorneys to explore how reasonable and fair the tort liability system is perceived to be by U.S. businesses. The attorneys were asked to judge a number of factors, including overall treatment of tort and contract litigation, treatment of class action suits and mass consolidation suits, judges' impartiality and competence, and juries' predictability and fairness.

The ILR report confirms findings by the American Tort Reform Association, which consistently defines the Valley and Gulf Coast as “judicial hellholes” or places where uneven justice and questionable rulings by courts are routine. For the Valley, the local legal reputation was recently reinforced when the region experienced an explosion of lawsuits against dredging employers made possible by a loophole in Texas law. Some personal injury lawyers are exploiting this loophole and bragging about the value of these cases in the Valley, according to Voinis.