Copyright 2000 Journal of Commerce, Inc.
Journal of
Commerce
February 16, 2000, Wednesday
SECTION: INSURANCE; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 696 words
HEADLINE:
Bush proposal wins support of insurers
BYLINE: BY JOHN
LEMING
BODY:
A federal tort reform proposal
unveiled last week by Texas Gov. George W. Bush has gained the endorsement of
several insurance groups but the derision of a lawyers' association.
Bush announced his plan at a campaign stop in South Carolina, where he
is campaigning to win the Republican party's nomination for president over Sen.
John McCain of Arizona.
The McCain campaign did not return calls seeking
comment on the Bush proposal. An entry on the senator's Web site indicates that
McCain broadly supports tort reform, but does not go into specifics except to
say that there should be ""a reasonable uniform standard for setting punitive
damage awards. '' Bush's proposal calls for ""three-strikes'' legislation that
would bar a lawyer found to have filed three frivolous lawsuits from litigating
in federal court for three years.
""The three-strikes proposal is an
interesting approach to establishing accountability among lawyers for the
lawsuits they file,'' said John Marlow, public affairs director for the American
Insurance Association's Southwest regional office in Austin, Texas.
Additionally, the Bush proposal calls for changes to steer large class-
action lawsuits to federal courts, instead of allowing ""forum shopping'' in
several state courts, and places a ban on federal agencies paying lawyers with
contingency fees.
Current law allows most interstate class actions to be
heard at the state level, even though members of the class may come from more
than one state. "" The business community has long been stymied in its effort to
reform and modernize laws governing these costly and sometimes frivolous
actions,'' Marlow said.
""We are very pleased that Gov. Bush has
introduced the lawsuit reform issue into the presidential campaign debate,''
Marlow said. ""Given his record of delivering results on legal reform issues in
Texas, we are very encouraged about the significant impact similar measures
could have nationwide.''
According to the association, the reforms
enacted in 1995 have resulted in Texans and Texas businesses saving nearly $3
billion through insurance rate reductions, and has persuaded a number of
companies that had shunned the Texas market to begin doing business there,
increasing competition, Marlow said.
Cases filed for non-motor vehicle
related injuries and damage have decreased more than 30 percent, and the number
of personal injury cases filed as a total of all civil cases has decreased from
13 percent to 10 percent from 1994 to 1998, Marlow said.
The Association
of Trial Lawyers of America quickly posted an entry on its Web site deriding the
Bush proposal, claiming that Bush had accepted more than $4 million in campaign
contributions from tort reform groups and their members during his two
gubernatorial campaigns.
The lawyers' association, whose members are
major contributors to Democratic Party candidates, including Vice President Al
Gore, said Bush's claims of billions of dollars in saving for consumers as a
result of tort reform are false. The group further states that the main
beneficiaries of tort reform have been insurance companies, which have ""raked
in billions of dollars in excess profits since the 'reforms' were passed.''
""It is not surprising that somebody who has collected unprecedented
sums of money from the insurance companies, the tobacco companies and
manufacturers'' would be interested in making it harder for members of the
public to sue these companies,'' said Carlton Carl, a trial lawyers' spokesman.
""Tort reform is nothing but corporate welfare, at the expense of every
consumer and every worker,'' Carl said.
The American Tort Reform
Association, a coalition of more than 300 businesses, corporations,
municipalities, associations and professional firms, also likes Bush's proposal,
and lauded his record in Texas, even though "" ATRA doesn't endorse
candidates,'' said Michael Hotra, director of public education for the
association.
""In Texas, during his tenure as governor, Gov. Bush was a
leader in enacting tort reform. We are pleased to see the governor would be
interested in continuing his efforts while president,'' Hotra said.
LOAD-DATE: February 16, 2000 
