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TEXAS TORT REFORM
The Real Consequences of Texas Tort Reform
If you have been involved in an automobile or 18-wheeler accident in Texas, then you may have several questions you need to be answered relating to responsibility and compensation.
If my family and I were victims in an automobile accident, would I be required to use my insurance to pay for medical and property damage expenses?
Hopefully not; if the other driver has insurance ticketed by the police that would demonstrate he or she may have been negligent in causing the accident, then his or her insurance company should be responsible for covering the reasonable cost of medical expenses and car repairs. More info on this website
Sometimes, however, in Texas, insurance companies are now highly aggressive and often deny legitimate claims and force litigation in part because of the rights stripped from Texas families with “tort reform.”
In other situations, some large, well-known insurers take such outrageous positions that an innocent victim can not settle his or her clear liability claim. They are made either to accept an absurd lowball insurance company settlement offer or hire a personal injury lawyer.
The real adverse consequences of Texas tort reform have been that insurers now routinely force families to file lawsuits on explicit liability claims, which is an injustice to the victims and also to the negligent person who now gets sued because his or her insurer required a lawsuit to be fair on the claim. Some insurers use “employee” attorneys to keep their costs down and profit high, and many take steps to make sure that the litigation is as costly to bring as possible to the injured victim. Often hiring bogus medical professionals to run up the lawsuit cost to the innocent victim.
There are now several frivolous claims in lawsuits in Texas, and the vast majority of them are frivolous defenses by the insurance companies in litigation only because of their unfair and bad faith claims handling practices that forced into court a matter that should have been settled.
Other states have taken some of the wells-to-know insurers (who reap huge profits in Texas) to court, reduced the outrageous premiums sought, and required changes in their claims-handling practices to protect their state’s families.
Unfortunately, for families in the Lone Star State, in Texas, it does not appear that anyone is trying anything to protect our families from the insurance company abuses we now see every day.