Civil Justice Reforms in Texas, Florida, and Alabama

Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) is hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists working for less government and lower taxes. For the past 15 years, CSE and our educational affiliate, CSE Foundation, have identified, educated, and activated citizens who are passionate about showing up to support free enterprise and limited government.

CSE’s Civil Justice Reform Campaign was conceived in 1998 with the notion that our civil justice system is simply not working, and that trial lawyers are robbing decent, honest Americans of their money, trust, freedom, and peace of mind.

All in all, each and every one of us in America is paying for a civil justice system that is out of control. The cost of the U.S. tort system is over $163 billion each year, or 2.3 percent of GDP— more than two and a half times the average industrialized country.More importantly, the tab comes to about $1,200 per person per year. But the cost to our society may be even higher. America’s courts are being used today to change the way our society functions.

Civil justice reform involves making the system fairer, less wasteful, more predictable, and less time-consuming without restricting access to our courts for legitimate lawsuits. In 1995 and 1999, Texas passed comprehensive civil justice reform. The Perryman Group (TPG), an economic research and analysis group based in Waco, Texas, was commissioned recently by Citizens for a Sound Economy to quantify and evaluate the impact of these recent reforms on the Texas economy. The results of the analysis entitled “The Impact of Judicial Reforms on Economic Activity in Texas,” reveal that those reforms and related factors have helped save consumers money, provided greater access to the courts, and encouraged a healthy, vibrant economy. Similar legislation was passed in both Alabama and Florida in 1999.

We encourage other state legislatures to follow the example of Texas, Florida, and Alabama and pass comprehensive civil justice reform.

Texas:

H.B. 668- An act relating to civil remedies for deceptive, unfair, or discriminatory practices and certain related consumer claims.

H.B. 971- An act relating to health care liability claims.

S.B. 25- An act relating to exemplary damages in civil suites.

S.B. 28- An act relating to responsibility for, and recovery of, damages in certain civil actions.

S.B. 32- An act relating to venue for civil actions.

S.B. 31- An act relating to the assessment of attorney’s fees, costs, and damages for certain frivolous lawsuits and defenses.

Florida:

H.B. 775- An act relating to civil actions.