Your Voice is Needed – Say NO to “Families Pay”
Today, in the Texas House of Representatives, another piece of legislation seeking to shield corporations and big business from accountability will be debated. House Bill 274 will only serve to make it more difficult for families and small businesses to hold large corporations responsible for their reckless and dangerous actions, and make no mistake; it will pass if we do not make our voices heard.
The so-called “Loser’s Bill” seeks to intimidate families and small businesses owners by making it virtually financially impossible for them to take legal action against those corporations and polluters who have put profit over safety and caused death, injury or financial devastation to Texans.
This piece of legislation will require Texas to should the massive legal costs of going after multinational corporations and their huge insurance companies. That’s right. Families and small businesses – not corporations – will be asked to pay the bloated legal fees associated with litigating these very necessary cases.
Lobbyists are calling this bill “Loser’s Pay” because that sounds better than what Texas Watch is more accurately calling “Families Pay.” The facts are this – under this bill, to take a corporation such as BP to trial, you will be required to foot the legal costs for yourself AND their team of high priced attorneys. This means you may have to empty your life savings to try and hold those who have harmed you accountable, and if you don’t win big enough, you won’t even recoup the money you were forced to spend in pursuit of justice. As Texas Watch puts it, “even if you win, you still lose.”
If we allow this bill to pass, corporations will have an enormous financial deterrent against legal action and will have successfully insulated them, yet again, from accountability. At the same time, they will be further depriving folks like yourself from your right to legal action.
What should you do?
Learn more about HR 274. Call your State Representatives. Visit Texas Watch and sign the petition. This will be another in a long line of blow against individuals’ access to the legal system if we do not say “enough is enough” and stand up to these corporations and their lobbyists.
Category: Lawyer's Advice
