Last-ditch attempt at tort reform in Texas falls short as second bill fails

The last-ditch attempt that the Texas trucking industry had at tort reform in the now-ended legislative session died in a House committee earlier this week.

After seeing one other bill die in committee last week, the Texas Trucking Association had hopes that one other piece of legislation – SB30 in the Senate and its companion bill in the House, HB 4806 – might make it through the last few days of the biennial legislative session that ended Monday. 

But the push came up short. While SB30 was passed by the full Senate, HB 4806 ended the session still on the agenda in the House Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee.

The failure meant that the Texas Trucking Association (TTA) and other Texas groups went zero for two in tort reform efforts this session. 

The original version of SB 30 would have made significant changes in the financial penalties that could be levied against a defendant in a lawsuit involving injury. 

But in a report on the bill from the San Antonio Express News, the newspaper said the death of SB30/HB4806 “came after it already had been pared down to an unrecognizable version that only required disclosure of referrals between lawyers and health care providers. It also would have expanded the options for what evidence could be admitted to estimate damages.”

John Esparaza, the CEO of the TTA, issued his second statement in just a few days expressing his disappointment at the outcome of the legislative push.

“While the outcome is a setback for all of us who are committed to protecting Texas businesses from abusive litigation practices, TXTA and our partners at the Lone Star Economic Alliance plan to continue to fight for a fair and balanced legal system in Texas,” he said. “The fact is that fraud in our state continues to grow, enriching a handful of unethical plaintiff attorneys and complicit medical providers who exploit their own clients. As long as the legislature permits it, the miracle of the Texas economy will keep fading. The greatest irony? Highway safety declines as drivers and companies who built careers on making our highways safer leave the industry and are replaced by those unqualified to operate a big rig.”

Besides the Texas Trucking Association, another organization that had been deeply involved in the efforts at tort reform in the just-completed session was Texans for Lawsuit Reform, which is part of the Lone Star Economic Alliance mentioned by Esparaza.

It released a statement following the end of the session, lamenting the demise of both SB30 and SB39 a week earlier. SB30 dealt mostly with damages, while SB39 was more focused on various rules of the road in litigation.

The reforms in the bill, the organization said, “would have been an essential step toward curbing the meritless lawsuits plaguing Texas businesses of all sizes, across all sectors, by preventing unjustified damage awards, and restoring fairness and transparency to the courtroom.”

Noting the similar path of both bill pairings – passed by the Senate, stuck in a House committee – the organization said “disagreement on final language in the conference committee kept the bill from making it over the finish line.”

“We urge the Texas Legislature to prioritize this issue in the 90th Texas Legislative Session, and to put an end to the blatant fraud on the legal system which jeopardizes Texas’s longstanding reputation as the best place in the nation to do business and create jobs,” TLR said in its prepared statement.

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