After reading Texas Adapts the Tort Reform Law, I discovered
a few interesting facts about what was actually passed. On May 30, 2011 Governor
Rick Perry signed HB 274 to create a “loser pays” tort system that applies to
civil suits that are seeking between $10,000 and $100,000 in damages. The bill
seeks to put everyone on an equal plane. It proposes that deposition costs be
recoverable and an offer of settlement stipulation. If a defendant files a
declaration to settle and the plaintiff rejects, the defendant can then the
costs incurred since the earliest settlement offer was rejected. Before it went
into effect, the plaintiff was allowed to collect the costs if he/she won, but
did not allow the same for the defendant. Essentially, this doesn't mean Governor Perry wants to screw anyone out of fairness. In fact, the way it is set up, it will
provide more equality to our court system.
It also provides a reduction in frivolous law suits. Here in
this day and age there are a number of ridiculous law suits and Texas
apparently does not wish to be included among those other states where anything
goes. Laura
Rude-Barbato along with Athena
Hohenberg sued Ferrero, the makers of Nutella in a civil law suit. The initial
question in everyone’s mind is what happened to them? Were there peanuts in the
product? Was there salmonella? Was there a recall; no, not at all. One of the mothers “discovered” the very visibly chocolate based product was not healthy. The
parties involved claimed the advertisements were misleading and they were under
the misconception that the product was healthy. Common sense would tell most
consumers that by law the nutritional information must be clearly listed on the
package, and it was. Mom apparently didn’t read the label. Why should that be
the company's fault that she failed to turn the bottle to the side before
putting it into her shopping cart, and subsequently on to her child’s toast in
the morning? California is known for
being a state where nearly anybody can sue anybody for almost anything. Along
with the legislators who voted for this tort law reform last year (96-49), I live in
the hopes that Texas never follows their example. I am glad that they have
reformed this law to prevent frivolous law suits from going to court. It enables
the court system to be more accessible since it is no longer bogged down with
meritless cases. Hence, that enables the system to run more efficiently and in
the long run less costly to tax payers across the board.
