Rick Perry, tort reform and Campaign 2012
TweetIt’s an issue that might not be very sexy, but don’t doubt its importance. Texas Governor Rick Perry has already made it crystal clear that tort reform is one of the pillars of his prescription for economic recovery, and it is something he has implemented in Texas in a dramatic manner. It has also made him determined enemies, as the NY Post discusses today: The guy the sharks fear.
Since 2003, Texas has become a model for national tort reform. That year, the state enacted a $250,000 cap on medical liability for non-economic damages.
That reform in particular helped free Texas from excessive medical-malpractice insurance premiums that had driven many physicians out of state (a problem, by the way, now bedeviling New York and New Jersey).
Other reforms include expedited class certification; ensuring that defendants pay only their proportionate responsibility; liability limits for good Samaritans, volunteer firefighters, etc., and reformed product-liability laws, so that local retailers are not on the hook for manufacturers’ mistakes.
And he continues to push a loser-pays system to discourage frivolous lawsuits, barring judges from finding new causes of action from the bench and expediting trials for litigants with legitimate claims.
No wonder the tort bar is quaking. And what an encouraging sight to see so much agitation.
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George W. Bush as president talked a fair bit about tort reform, but didn’t make it a signature issue to the extent where he earned a mandate to get it through Congress (extraordinarily difficult given the extent to which Democrats in particular are totally in hock to the trial lawyer lobby). Perry has already made it a signature issue. And it should be noted that it is one of the things which distinguishes him from the rest of the Republican field.
