AUSTIN – If someone listened only to Thomas J. Henry, a trial lawyer, than he or she might believe House Bill 19 (commonly referred to as the trucking bill) would make the roads “even more unsafe for Texas families.”
Introduced by Rep. Jeff Leach, who sits on the House Committee on Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence, HB 19 seeks to end abusive litigation against the commercial vehicle industry.
Yesterday, Texas lawmakers debated the controversial bill.
Texas Watch, a self-proclaimed consumer protection group backed by trial lawyers, openly opposes the bill, claiming HB 19 will give trucking corporations less incentive to follow safety measures.
“Clean up your act. Stop killing us. I’m talking to the corporate trucking industry,” said Ware Wendell, Texas Watch’s executive director, on his Rundown show today.
Wendell says the bill is being pushed by the trucking industry in order to change the law to “make it easier to kill people.”
Henry seemingly echoes Wendell’s sentiment, linking a petition to oppose HB 19 on his firm’s website.
“The State of Texas leads the country in trucking crash injury and death accidents,” the site states. “The proposed (HB 19) would make roads even more unsafe for Texas families.”
And while both Wendell and Henry paint their efforts as an attempt to guard the roadways, neither one of them mentions that HB 19 would most likely cut into trial lawyer profits.
Leach, however, did have something to say about that on Twitter two days ago: “Don’t believe the lies about #HB19. It’ll be a great law for ALLTexans (except greedy trial lawyers).”
According to the Texas Office of Court Administration, motor vehicle litigation has increased 118 percent in Texas since 2008, while other types of personal injury litigation have decreased. A lawsuit was filed after one out of every 10 crashes in 2019, up from one in every 17 cases in 2008.
On his show, Wendell made the argument that there are more lawsuits because truck deaths in Texas have more than doubled since 2009, creating a “safety crisis” in the state.
Conversely, groups like Texans for Lawsuit Reform argue the lawsuit spike has caused the price of insurance to skyrocket, whether or not a company has had an accident or even owns a vehicle.
Proponents of the bill maintain the Texas Legislature can provide balance in commercial vehicle litigation by ensuring juries receive the full and accurate facts of a case, ensuring the cases are tried consistently across the state and addressing the “phantom damages” that create a lawsuit profit center.