The Texas Supreme Court recently issued a ruling in a products liability case that puts one of Texas’ early tort reforms in the spotlight. According to Reuters, the plaintiff alleged that “a knockoff Apple TV remote sold by a Chinese third-party seller, Hu Xi Jie, was defective and allowed the battery to pop out. The remote was sold through Amazon’s ‘Fulfillment by Amazon’ service, in which the company stores sellers’ products at its warehouses and then ships them to buyers.” In its 5-2 decision, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that Amazon can’t be held liable for the third-party seller’s product under Texas’ 2003 products liability law, which was a TLR initiative. Before 2003, retailers were often sued for injuries allegedly caused by defective products, despite the fact that the retailers had nothing to do with the design or manufacturing of the product. In many instances, the lawsuits against retailers were used to establish venue in a favorable county. House Bill 4, passed by the Legislature in 2003, included an “innocent retailers” defense, providing that a retailer who does nothing more than acquire a product and sell it to the customer cannot be held liable for a defect in the product.

The pandemic and recent winter storms have highlighted a stark reality: Commercial vehicles are essential for disaster preparedness, response and recovery. Whether they’re carrying life-saving medicine, water supplies or critical fuel, or providing necessary services like plumbers and contractors, Texans depend on commercial vehicles. But these commercial vehicles are targeted by personal injury trial lawyers across our state for abusive lawsuits. These aggressive plaintiff lawyers have developed an unfair strategy to maximize results in commercial vehicle lawsuits by presenting the jury with misleading evidence. In most of these lawsuits, the facts simply don’t support the size of the settlements and verdicts. Ad after ad singles out trucks and company cars… any vehicle with a logo on it. These vehicles are villainized in court so plaintiff’s attorneys can come away with a big payday. But when lives are at stake, when grocery store shelves are bare and gas pumps are empty, when pipes burst and repairs are required, we need commercial vehicles for our communities to function. This played out in real-time across the Lone Star State during the winter storm. In one particularly poignant story, a professional driver for Atlas Delivery Services in Houston undertook a perilous, 197-mile trip to

Gov. Abbott announced this week that Texas was again named the top exporting state in the nation by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the 19th consecutive year Texas has taken the top spot, and the eighth year in a row the Lone Star State has been named the top exporting state for technology products. According to the bureau’s data, Texas had $279.3 billion in exports in 2020, more than California and New York combined. That’s a lot of cargo moving on Texas roads. And a lot of targets for abusive litigation against commercial vehicle operators. We’ve recently taken a closer look at the abusive lawsuit cottage industry that is driving litigation against commercial vehicle operators. This litigation scheme started by targeting the trucking companies that are essential to Texas’ supply chain and to maintaining our status as the top exporting state in the nation. But it’s expanded since then, setting its sights on any vehicle of any size with a company’s logo on it. While other types of personal injury litigation are decreasing, Texas has seen a 118 percent increase in automobile litigation. A lawsuit was filed after one out of every ten accidents in 2019, up from one

“It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” —U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, New State Ice Co v. Liebmann It’s been said that all politics is local. Thankfully for Americans, a good bit of governing is local, too. Unlike the U.S. Congress—where gridlock and strife have become more common than principled policy solutions—the states have remained beacons of innovation and dialogue.  By and large, the states have stayed committed to making government work. Well, at least some of them. That’s the premise of Making Government Work, a reboot of the 1994 book by the same name. Edited by Texas State Rep. Tan Parker (R, Flower Mound), the 2020 edition looks at the state-level evolution of public policy, focusing on common-sense solutions to solve the most pressing needs of our communities. From education to taxes, healthcare to fair courts, the book brings together thought leaders from around the nation to discuss how principled decisions by state legislators can create opportunities for families and employers to thrive. TLR Chairman

The votes are in for the 2020 election, and while the results of a handful of races are still being finalized, by and large, we know what Texas’ Senate and House will look like in the upcoming legislative session. The men and women who will serve in the Legislature will face important tasks next year, as the pandemic continues to cast uncertainty over everything from the state budget to the logistics for committee hearings at the Capitol. One thing is certain—the decisions made by legislators in 2021 will have a lasting impact on our state’s economy, job creation and future opportunities for Texas families. At a time when many Texans are struggling, we should be doing everything we can to support job creation and economic growth in our state. For TLR, that starts with shutting down job-killing lawsuit abuse whenever and wherever it occurs, and there is no bigger area of lawsuit abuse today than commercial vehicle litigation. As we’ve outlined previously, the data demonstrates the problem. Texas has seen a 118 percent increase in the number of motor vehicle lawsuits filed since 2008. In 2019, a lawsuit was filed after one of out every 10 crashes, compared to one

Last week, Texas Supreme Court Justice Paul Green announced that he will retire from the bench in August, after serving 15 years on the state’s high court. Green is an exceptional jurist and second in seniority on the Texas Supreme Court. Green’s extensive background in litigation as an attorney and judge have been critical assets to the Texas Supreme Court. He practiced law for nearly 20 years before serving on the Fourth Court of Appeals in San Antonio for 10 years.  While Green’s retirement will certainly be a loss to the court, we are confident Gov. Abbott will appoint a successor who is highly qualified and has the experience and temperament necessary to serve on the state’s high court. We are certain of this because Gov. Abbott’s track record of court appointments is excellent, including his recent appointments of Justices Jane Bland and Brett Busby. In fact, Texas governors from both sides of the aisle have appointed some of our state’s most qualified and dynamic judges, from former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justices Wallace Jefferson and Tom Phillips to Justices Eva Guzman and Raul Gonzalez. In addition to being fine jurists, Jefferson, Gonzalez and Guzman were historic appointments—Jefferson was our

As the U.S. continues to deal with the widespread effects of COVID-19, it’s clear no industry is immune to the pandemic’s wrath—including law firms. But do all of these law firms really need to dig into the government wallet? Some of the largest personal injury firms in the nation (many of which call Texas home) received loans through the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The program is intended to help small businesses keep their workforces employed during the pandemic, primarily by covering the cost of payroll. Several plaintiff law firms took PPP loans—which required them to certify that the loans were necessary to preserve their ongoing operations—while simultaneously making political contributions to at least one political action committee. Further, it’s curious that many of these firms have run—and in some cases, continue to run—TV ads touting multi-million-dollar lawsuit awards and settlements, even as they claim to need a taxpayer-funded bailout to keep staff employed.  These personal injury law firms cumulatively received millions of dollars from the PPP at a time when many small businesses could not access the funds. To add insult to injury to job creators struggling to keep their doors open, some personal injury firms

“My torts professor taught us that uncertainty about the standard of care creates what he calls a ‘cliff problem’… When we know there’s a liability cliff—some line that will be catastrophic to step across—but we don’t know exactly where the edge of the cliff is, we will avoid the ground near the cliff altogether.” That testimony, provided by Texas Christian University General Counsel Leroy Tyner to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, puts into clear focus the tremendously difficult decisions businesses across our state and nation are facing today. While everyone looks forward to the day when we can resume business as usual, we all understand that given the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, its side effects will linger for many years to come. But we also know that people must work. Businesses must operate. And they are increasingly being given the greenlight to do so by state and local governments. TLR has been working with state and federal leaders to determine if there is a way to give businesses some reassurance that they are not blindly approaching a liability cliff. At the federal level, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has designated Senator John Cornyn as the lead on liability issues.

Any Imposition of Liability Related to the Coronavirus Must be Based on Standards that Recognize these Extraordinary Circumstances April 20, 2020 As our nation copes with the coronavirus pandemic, we are all concerned about the health and well being of our families and neighbors. We are in this together. We are experiencing a devotion to duty and a level of responsibility throughout our society that is inspiring and reminiscent of our national effort during World War II.  Great courage and determination are being displayed by our healthcare providers, first responders, and the workers who are keeping the essential elements of our economy functioning – food producers, truckers, manufacturers of needed products, warehouse workers, and grocers, to name a few. As a nation, we have before us the formidable tasks of controlling and defeating the virus, restoring our society, and rebuilding our economy. A tsunami of plaintiff-lawyer inspired litigation will not assist our efforts. Quite the contrary. Greed-driven mass litigation will cause delay and division and impose costs that will hamper our recovery and impede the ability of our businesses and industries to restore our economy to its pre-virus vigor and bring us back to full employment.  Businesses and professionals are

World Health Day was last week, on April 7, and there couldn’t be a more appropriate time to recognize the work and sacrifices of the healthcare profession across the globe. In the past few weeks, we’ve seen these men and women run toward danger, working around the clock and putting their own lives on the line to help those affected by COVID-19. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has created a task force to help ensure these professionals have the personal protection equipment they need and that their hospitals have the resources necessary to respond to a surge in coronavirus patients. The governor has also issued orders easing licensing requirements for healthcare workers to ensure Texas has the medical workforce it needs in the coming weeks. But there’s an additional layer of protection that we should grant to the men and women on the frontlines of this pandemic: liability protection. TLR recently joined with the Texas Alliance for Patient Access, Texas Medical Association, Texas Hospital Association and others to request that Gov. Abbott issue an executive order providing liability protection during the declared disaster for physicians and other healthcare providers. “These healthcare professionals are literally risking their lives to care for