The lawsuit abuse propaganda is flying again, twice in one week. The Texans Against Lawsuit Abuse organization, funded by big businesses, intentionally does not tell other sides of the story, and subtlety urges us voters, and particularly jurors, to be cold and cheap with our neighbors — something we wouldn’t want our neighbors to be with us if we bring a lawsuit.
I’ve been representing consumers in injury and damages cases, mostly in Cameron County, for almost 40 years. It’s sad how many of our laws are designed to protect wrong-doing insurance companies.
For example, our healthcare liability laws that limit or “cap” recoveries are designed so that lawyers won’t take the cases and thereby give negligent healthcare providers immunity from responsibility for injuring and maiming patients. These caps on recoveries make it unattractive for lawyers to take such cases on a percentage fee. It costs too much to put on a trial for the amount that can be recovered. And our lawmakers know that most of us can’t afford to pay $100,000 to put on a medical malpractice trial. So, the negligent healthcare providers’ insurance companies pay nothing, and the wrongfully damaged patients get nothing.
I recently experienced a flood of people who have been victims of misrepresentations by solar panel installation companies and owe $40,000 to $70,000 for systems that don’t work or don’t work like the consumers were told they would. But, again, most of us can’t afford, or won’t, the tens of thousands of dollars to sue these companies, and most lawyers, including me, won’t risk our time and money by accepting the cases on a percentage fee. There are laws to protect consumers in these cases but consumers can’t afford to enforce their rights, and they are no match in court against insurance company-paid attorneys who are paid by the hour with all expenses reimbursed.
Our laws protect insurance companies in trials at the expense of justice. In a typical injury case, the jurors are instructed not to consider whether the defendant is covered by insurance. The injured person’s attorney is instructed not to tell the jurors that the defendant’s attorney is being paid by an insurance company. The injured person’s lawyers are also instructed not to tell the jurors that the injured person’s attorneys fees and expenses, including expert medical testimony that can cost $5,000 per hour, will come out of any money the jurors may award and will greatly reduce the injured person’s ultimate recovery.
Understandably, many people don’t know these things about our civil “justice” system and dutifully follow the judge’s instructions that protect big businesses and hurt the wrongfully damaged.
These are just parts of the story that the big-business-backed Texans Against Lawsuit Abuse organization is not telling us, all the while subtly urging us to be cold and cheap with our neighbors by appealing to our self-interest to have theoretically lower insurance rates. Meanwhile, insurance companies are raking in historic profits.
Barry Benton lives in Brownsville.
