Texas has enacted considerable tort reform under Perry, including capping damages for pain and suffering and, most recently, requiring certain losing parties in litigation to pay the other sides’ court costs and attorneys’ fees. (Click here for LB background on the loser-pays law.)
If Perry is the Republican nominee for president, Politico reports, deep-pocketed trial lawyers are ready to play a major role in trying to defeat him. (HT: PointofLaw.com)
The Perry campaign has already cited tort reform as a priority, according to Politico. Campaigning in South Carolina on Friday, for example, Perry said that “back in the ’80s and ’90s, Texas was a very litigious state,” but now: “We passed the most sweeping tort reform in 2003 and it still is the model in the nation.”
“If Perry’s the nominee, the trial lawyers will come out of the woodwork to support Obama, where I don’t know that they would now,” John Coale, a former trial lawyer, told Politico.
Plaintiffs’ lawyers have long been a major source of funds for Democrats. The American Association for Justice — the trade group for the trial bar — has given about $34 million to candidates since 1990, and 89% of that amount went to Democrats, Politico reports, citing data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Perry campaign, meanwhile, seems like it is spoiling for a fight with plaintiffs’ lawyers. “Of course they’re going to scream and shout when they feel that someone like Gov. Perry is standing in the way of them lining their pockets,” Perry spokesman Mark Miner told Politico.
_____________
source: Wall Street Journal (Koppel, 8/22)
Commentary: The Cole Legal Group asks where you stand on the issue? In other words, do you agree or disagree with Perry in the matter of Tort Reform?
No comments:
Post a Comment