AUSTIN, Texas, Nov. 27, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Texans for Lawsuit Reform has challenged the conclusions of a Baylor School of Law survey, "Straight from the Horses Mouth," released earlier this year, which claimed to find that most Texas trial court judges believe there are few meritless lawsuits in the state and that further lawsuit reforms are not needed.
In commentary published this weekend in the San Antonio Express-News, TLR Attorney Lee Parsley, said, "Even though the anti-reform bias of the study is clear, the findings of the Baylor Law School survey confirm that the battle against lawsuit abuse in Texas is far from over."
Parsley also said that those conducting the survey seemed unaware of the long history of lawsuit abuse in Texas. As two recent examples, he pointed to the rash of dredging industry lawsuits that threatened to shut down the Texas maritime industry as well as the asbestos-silica lawsuit scandal in Corpus Christi in 2005 where Federal Judge Janis Graham Jack threw out nearly 10,000 cases which she described as "more about greed than justice." The Baylor Study found that:
* Over half the judges surveyed said they had personally observed
a frivolous lawsuit in their courtroom in the past four years.
* 35 percent of district court judges had reduced an excessive
jury award in the past 48 months in at least one case. 16
percent had imposed sanctions for bringing frivolous claims
at least twice during that time, a number that is particularly
significant because the grounds for imposing sanctions on
lawyers are so high.
* One in six trial court judges reported that in at least one
civil case they heard in the past 48 months, the jury awarded
too much money based on the facts. These exaggerated awards
can easily bankrupt companies, as they did in the asbestos and
silica lawsuits scandal when more than 70 companies were
forced out of business and as many as 128,000 jobs were lost.
The survey dos not address the ongoing challenge of judge shopping and the notorious "judicial hellholes" in East and South Texas where local businesses and companies from around the world agree it is sometimes impossible to receive a fair outcome.
"Poll after poll shows Texans want fair and honest courts," Parsley said. "The Baylor survey makes it clear there is still more work to be done to achieve that goal."
Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the state's largest civil justice reform organization, is a bipartisan, volunteer-led coalition with more than 15,000 supporters residing in more than 757 Texas communities and representing 1,253 different businesses, professions and trades.
The Texans for Lawsuit Reform logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2570