Posted On: February 2, 2006, 4:59 pm CST

Posted By: marianne

The Tort Reform in Texas may be working well for a specific group of individuals however from what I see it has made a negative impact on a lot of other areas. I work for a Litigation Service in Houston and feel that we need to look at the overall effect that this has caused. Many of the firms have downsized as well as companies such as the one that I work with. It appears that would lead to more unemployment and less overall spending. Many people who could file a law suit before because the plaintiff attorney was willing to do it on a contingecy basis, can no longer afford to file the suit no matter who is at fault. It also appears that many of the middle class and below can only make large purchases if they have received a settlement of some sort. Perhaps we should look at the recent decisions for the car manufactors to shut down plants and lay off workers. We need to keep in mind that although the Tort Reform was put into place for large amounts, if the plaintiff attorneys do not take the smaller cases on a contengency basis because they are not making what they have in the past, then the amount of law suits just went down. I hope that Oklahoma will look at this very carefully and make sure that they are not just protecting corporate America and the ones that already have deep pockets. We all need to be responsible for our actions and I do not feel that the insurance should be so high that the physicians should have to stop practicing. If people do not have jobs, the unemployment and Federal Assistance, just went up. The crime rate goes up when people become desperate. The Litigation industry effects a lot of people outside of the Law Firms. You have Process Servers, Notaries, Legal Nurse Con sultants, Court Reporters, Expert Witness, just to name a few. Less computers and paper and supplies as well as Lone Star, Fed. Ex, UPS and all the others, not to mention people who work in the court system. The I guess the real question is where is all the money going and who is responsible?