Copyright 2000 Star-Telegram Newspaper, Inc.
Fort
Worth Star Telegram
March 9, 2000, Thursday ARLINGTON EDITION
SECTION: METRO; Pg. 5
LENGTH: 334 words
HEADLINE:
Group to seek more restrictions on liability lawsuits
BYLINE: Renee C. Lee; Star-Telegram Staff Writer
BODY:
ARLINGTON - A group that five years ago
successfully
pushed for changes in tort law plans to ask state lawmakers
to consider more changes next year, the group's leader,
Dick Weekley,
said yesterday.
Weekley, the co-founder and president of Texans for
Lawsuit
Reform, said that although Texas has come a long way in its civil
justice system, more needs to be done to curb liability lawsuits.
He
said his group will try to put more accountability in state
laws, reduce the
amount of money that lawyers can charge clients,
and end the abuse of class
action lawsuits. Weekley spoke yesterday at a meeting of the Great Southwest
Rotary Club of Arlington.
Weekley could not offer specific proposals
that his group plans
to give state legislators because he said the group is
still doing
research. But the group wants to develop a statute that is fair
to
both the plaintiff and the defendant, and one that will be modeled
by
other states, he said.
He said a major concern of the group is the size
of fees that
lawyers are allowed to charge clients.
"We believe that
lawyers are officers of the court," he said.
"Their job is to find us
justice and not to be entrepreneurs and
charge hundreds of billions of
dollars."
Weekley also said the group wants to end extensive use of
class-action lawsuits in which several lawsuits against a company
are
consolidated into one big one. He said such lawsuits are OK but
are being
abused.
He said the group's chances of getting more changes passed
during
next year's legislative session look promising based on the success
of changes passed in 1995. He said those changes have saved
consumers
$2.9 billion in insurance premiums.
He said he is
certain that lawmakers will review the group's new
proposals with open minds
and will look at them based on their
merits.
"When they do that,
laws are passed," he said. "That's all we can
ask for."
Renee C.
Lee, (817) 548-5415
reneelee@star-telegram.com
LOAD-DATE: March 10, 2000 
