Texas trial lawyers spend $13M in 2010 election cycle

Texas trial lawyers surpassed their 2008 benchmark for campaign spending, shelling out $13.6 million so far in 2010, with famed Houston hurricane attorney Steve Mostyn providing almost half the cash.

Mostyn, the incoming president of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, has spent $5.9 million, according to an Oct. 22 press release from Texans for Lawsuit Reform.

Mostyn was the lead attorney on the recent Texas Windstorm Insurance Association Hurricane Ike settlement, which reportedly netted over $75 million in attorney fees. At the request of Mostyn, Judge Susan Criss, 212th District Court, sealed the award on Oct. 11, so exact figures are not known.

"As has now become the norm, the majority of trial lawyer contributions are funded through deceptively named groups that mask the source of the contribution on candidate reports," said TLR spokeswoman Sherry Sylvester in the press release.

"Personal injury trial lawyers have anted up more this election cycle than any other business or industry to elect candidates who will work to overthrow the lawsuit reforms – the very reforms that have bolstered the Texas economy in these tough times and increased access to health care throughout the state."

Mostyn also founded Back to Basics, spending more than $3 million so far to run attack ads against Governor Rick Perry and state house candidates who do not support the trial lawyer agenda, the press release states.

"Texans for Insurance Reform, which has nothing to do with insurance or reform, has reported $1.3 million in contributions, 99 percent of which came from personal injury trial attorneys. TIR supports candidates who push the trial lawyer agenda," Sylvester said.

"Trial lawyers also provide the major funding for the Texas Democratic Party. So far this cycle, 92 percent of the funding from the Texas Democratic Party has come from the Texas Democratic Trust a trial lawyer PAC founded by the late Fred Baron, an asbestos lawyer."

In addition to Mostyn and Baron, the top five trial lawyer contributors include John Eddie Williams, Nix Patterson & Roach and Provost Umphrey – three firms that were part of the 1998 $3.3 billion tobacco fee awarded by former attorney general and later convicted felon Dan Morales, the press release states.

Williams, Umphrey and Nix have been among the top Texas political contributors since that settlement.

Other trial lawyer groups that funnel money to Texas campaigns include the Coalition of Harris County Democratic Elected Officials, Texas Progress Council PAC, Texas Values in Action Coalition PAC, Lone Star Project PAC, Texas Forward Committee, Texans for Public Education, Turn Texas Blue and the Valley Political Action Committee, according to the press release.

"Personal injury trial lawyers represent only a tiny sliver of the legal community and an even smaller segment of Texas businesses and professionals," Sylvester said. "By contrast, TLR is the state's largest civil justice reform organization."

TLR is a bipartisan, volunteer-led coalition with more than 17,000 supporters residing in 869 Texas communities and representing 1,266 different businesses, professions and trades.

2010 Election Cycle*

Total Trial Lawyer Contributions: $13, 513,395