This is a follow-up message from Texas Watch to go along with the blog post from yesterday:
Dangerous legislation pushed by lobbyists for polluters, insurance companies and other corporate wrongdoers is on its way to the floor of the Texas Senate. The bill (HB 274) is designed to intimidate Texas families and small businesses into foregoing the legal accountability process, thus immunizing dangerous corporations when they cause needless death, injury, or financial devastation.
This legislation threatens Texans with the possibility of having to pay the bloated legal costs of big insurance companies or multinational corporations like BP or Wal-Mart. The lobbyists call this “loser pays,” but really it is “families pay” because only individuals – not corporate defendants – would be forced to pay. What’s worse is that you could see your life savings wiped out not only if you lose a valid lawsuit, but even if you just don’t win big enough. In other words, you can win… and still lose.
Florida’s experience with a similar legislation was so bad that lawmakers there repealed it just five years later. In fact, commonly known as “British Rule,” this sort of legislation was rejected by our founders more than two centuries ago because it guts individual liberties. Now, even the British themselves are considering abandoning it in favor of our American system.
If we don’t act now, this dangerous bill aimed at protecting big insurance companies and polluters at the expense of families and small businesses will become law. Tell your state senator that Texas families can’t afford HB 274.
