Copyright 2000 Star-Telegram Newspaper, Inc.
Fort
Worth Star Telegram
April 28, 2000, Friday FINAL EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 2
LENGTH: 291 words
HEADLINE:
Activists seek to curb class-action lawsuits
BYLINE:
Glen Fest; Star-Telegram Staff Writer
BODY:
BEDFORD
- Activists trying to change the country's tort
system are giving top
priority to curbing class-action
lawsuits and to encouraging pretrial
lawsuit settlements,
an official with Texans for Lawsuit Reform told the
Hurst-Euless-Bedford Chamber of Commerce membership yesterday.
Richard Enthoven, a Dallas real estate executive and member of
the
board of governors for TLR, told the luncheon crowd that the
lobbying
organization hopes those changes will improve a system it
feels has evolved
since the Legislature began enacting changes the
group pushed in 1995.
"Lawsuit abuse extracts a terrible toll on all Texans: consumers,
retirees,
families, workers and small and large businesses,"
Enthoven said. "Every
single excessive judgment, excessive
settlement, excessive legal fee and
unnecessarily filed lawsuit
raises the price of things we buy."
The
group advocates clamping down on class-action suits and
penalizing
plaintiffs who don't accept "reasonable" settlement
offers before a suit
goes to trial.
A Texas Trial Lawyers Association spokesman, however,
said
yesterday that the TLR's priorities are fringe issues the lawmakers
dismissed in the first round of tort reform.
Willie Chapman,
communications director of the trial lawyers
group, said the TLR's proposals
would further erode consumers'
rights.
"If you made such a change,
it would make it difficult for
consumers to reject low-ball offers from
insurance companies,
because they would be put hugely at risk if they went
to court,"
Chapman said.
Enthoven said TLR will soon launch an
advertising campaign to
increase donations and boost its 5,000-plus
membership.
Glen Fest, (817) 685-3808
gfest@star-telegram.com
LOAD-DATE: April 28, 2000 
