Copyright 1999 Star-Telegram Newspaper, Inc.
Fort
Worth Star Telegram
November 19, 1999, Friday FINAL EDITION
SECTION: BUSINESS; Pg. 4
LENGTH: 293 words
HEADLINE:
Tort reform advocate eyes new goal
SOURCE: Associated Press
BODY:
MIDLAND - The leader of a group that lobbied successfully for
laws
making it harder to win injury lawsuits says his next goal is
to ensure that
juries learn more about the finances of people who
file lawsuits.
Dick Weekly says if a plaintiff has received $ 50,000 from an
insurer to cover his legal bills, jurors should know that; he says
they
aren't told now. Weekly said keeping that kind of financial information away
from
juries leads to higher awards against defendants.
The founder
of Texans for Lawsuit Reform made the comments
Wednesday night to the
Petroleum Club in Midland.
Weekly boasted about the effect of tort
reform in the mid-1990s,
saying that defendants are no longer losing a
majority of cases and
that big awards are declining. Before 1994,
he said, plaintiffs won
a majority of cases, but since then, defendants have
won 65 percent
of cases.
"We all know a corporation or two that's
done something wrong,"
Weekly said. "Does that mean all
corporations need to be punished?
We believe the law needs to have
balance and fairness. "
Weekly said changes enacted by the Legislature
in 1995 created
$ 2.9 billion in insurance savings the next
year. He said large
employers would have left the state if there
had been no changes in
liability laws.
Weekly said his group's
legislative agenda includes something
called the Offer Settlement Law, which
would hold plaintiffs
responsible for defendants' legal bills if they reject
a settlement
and take a case to trial.
Under the proposal, he said,
if a plaintiff files suit over
$ 5,000 in damage and rejects a $ 5,000
settlement offer, he would be
responsible for all defense legal bills
throughout the trial,
regardless of the jury's verdict.
LOAD-DATE: December 1, 1999
