Tort Reform in Texas: Implementing the Corporate Immunity Agenda
From Alex Winslow, Texas Watch, Consumer Protection, Corporate accountability, Citizen Advocacy
Over the last decade, Texas Governor Rick Perry has presided over a series of radical legislative proposals that, under the guise of so-called tort reform, reward those who needlessly endanger our communities at the expense of families and small business owners. The Texas Watch Foundation’s latest report, Tort Reform in Texas: Implementing the Corporate Immunity Agenda, details the impact these restrictions have had on the rights of patients, families, workers, homeowners, senior citizens, policyholders, and small business owners.
Beginning with the dramatic, sweeping changes in 2003 that severely restricted the rights of patients and nursing home residents, as well as the crony capitalism behind the creation of the Texas Residential Construction Commission, and ending with the so-called loser pays proposals of 2011, the last decade has been marked by a series of dangerous restrictions on bedrock legal and constitutional protections.
Today, Texas is place that would be unrecognizable to the framers of our state and federal constitutions who believed the right to a trial by jury was fundamental.
You can read this report at www.texaswatch.org.