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ABC Special Report
Investigation: New Home Heartbreak
Trump - NAHB Homebuilders Shoddy Construction and Forced Arbitration
 

Outrageous! Buy a New Home - Don’t Sue and Shut Up
Homebuilders will stop at nothing – Now Buyers must agree not to Speak

Beware of New Builder Clause – Homebuilder requires that homebuyer sign clauses forcing buyers to give up their constitutional rights.  It’s a decision between constitutional rights and the American Dream. 

SEE: KB Warranty Conditions - Sign A Shut Up Agreement or No Repairs
PLUS: It's Your Choice, Homebuilder Contracts - Hold Harmless

Tort Reform
Attorney Exposes Dick & David Weekley's Joke of Tort Reform
Tuesday, 07 October 2008

Comment on Article by Dick Weekley on Tort Reform - Homebuilders worse 
I have never seen a piece of garbage in print as bad as "The cost of crooked lawyers" Outlook article. I used to be a defense attorney and worked at the most prominent homebuilder defense firm in Texas, and homebuilders rip off consumers more than any trial lawyer in history. There were times when builders built a horrible house with a bad foundation and then they'd claim "Texas soils shift," when it was actually a badly poured foundation. As the walls of the house would crack and fall, the homeowners' lives in ruin because their dream home was destroyed, the attorneys I worked with and the builders would laugh, knowing that Texas law allows a homeowner no real recourse. Since 1989, when a plaintiff's attorney went on 60 Minutes and bragged he had the Texas Supreme Court bought and paid for, there has been nearly 20 years of "tort reform" lobbyists in Texas. While the targets are trial attorneys over and over again, when has the Chronicle ever really done serious front-page journalism on the real people harmed, the people who are injured?  Aaron A. Herbert, attorney Dallas

 
High Court Has Been Good For Business
Thursday, 21 June 2007

A dozen rulings in the last year have been a boon to corporations by making it harder to sue them or limiting lawsuit damages
The Bush administration and corporate lobbyists long have sought sweeping “tort reform” to limit lawsuits and massive jury awards — without much success. But in the last year, they quietly have been winning much of what they’ve wanted on a case-by-case basis in the Supreme Court.  With a week to go in their term, the justices have handed down a dozen rulings that sharply limit the damages that can be won in lawsuits or make it harder to sue corporations.

Read more...
 
Houston Chronicle - Going to extremes
Wednesday, 24 May 2006
Why a survey indicating Texas is tops in limiting lawsuit judgments is bad news for consumers
IF Texans needed any evidence that the tort reform drive in the state has gone too far, they need only look at a study conducted by a pro-business think tank, the Pacific Research Institute. Although its purpose is to promote further efforts around the country to limit the number of lawsuits and size of judgments, the survey rankings suggest that the last major tort reform legislation passed in the Texas Legislature in 2003 has tipped the balance too far in favor of defendants... Alex Winslow, the executive director of the Austin-based consumer advocate group Texas Watch, says the state's new No. 1 ranking is nothing to crow about. "If your goal is to allow senior citizens and children to be abused without accountability, or to allow insurance companies to turn their backs on homeowners, or to allow big drug companies to knowingly peddle dangerous pharmaceuticals, then sadly Texas is the place for you," he said.
Read more...
 
L.A. jury learns how Austin works
Saturday, 19 November 2005
L.A. jury learns how Austin works
NOBODY is saying state Rep. Joe Nixon improperly pressured Farmers Insurance Group two years ago to pay him more than he had coming in a settlement over severe mold damage to his home... After a two-week trial, the jury determined that the insurance giant had wrongfully terminated Isabelle Arnold, national mold manager, for objecting to paying Nixon more than he had coming to him...Nixon was a friend to all insurance companies. He was a leader in "tort reform" legislation designed to lower jury awards.
Read more...
 
Texas Consumer recovery limited to less than damages
Wednesday, 16 November 2005
Mold suit ends in failure
The rules in Texas prevent the type of settlement reached in California from happening here. The Dentlers at the most would have been entitled to $250,000 in pain and suffering costs and actual costs. Their last petition was actually for $750,000, which included $110,000 for contents, $240,000 to rebuild the house, $70,000 to replace losses from paying two mortgages at once because the family moved due to mold damage and $330,000 for attorney fees. Insurance companies eventually paid $70,000 for damages, which was a quarter of what was requested, and $7,000 of that went to a public adjuster, Peggy Dentler said.
Read more...
 
Texas Monthly - Texas Tort Reform
Tuesday, 25 October 2005

Hurt? Injured? Need a Lawyer? Too Bad!
Two years ago, rich and powerful Texans said lawsuits were ruining the state’s economy and needed to be fairer. Today, thanks to tort reform, they are fairer&mdash for business. Ordinary people are out of luck... Once upon a time, the purpose of tort law was to make injured people whole. In Texas, victims of medical malpractice or corporate wrongdoing, no matter how poor or powerless, had some redress through the legal system. The Texas constitution plainly states that “all courts shall be open” and that every injured person “shall have remedy by due course of law.” But through the efforts of a small group of wealthy and politically influential businessmen and a legislature slavishly devoted to the organization they founded, Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), those days are gone, and these rights may disappear across the nation as President Bush pushes his campaign against “greedy trial lawyers” and “frivolous lawsuits.”...With the courts closed and the Legislature supine, the good people of TLR will have remade the world in their image, one in which there is no recourse for wrongdoing, one in which the powerful simply get their way.

Read more...
 
Public Citizen - Locked out of courthouse
Thursday, 12 May 2005

Business-Backed Class Action Bill Locks Consumers Out of Court
Statement by Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook
This week, the Senate will debate one of the most unfair, anti-consumer bills that we’ve seen in years. This business-backed class action legislation (S. 5) will lock millions of consumers out of the courthouse. Business interests have spent tens of millions of dollars to pass it to avoid public accountability for fraud and deceptive practices.

Read more...
 
Fooled by Tort Reformer's?
Friday, 29 October 2004

 Is the public being misled?  Tort Reformers have launched a campaign to intentionally mislead the public about  the number of frivolous lawsuits.  Their goal is to ultimately limit liability for Big Business. However, recent research exposes that Businesses file more lawsuits than the general public. Lead by the Homebuilding Industry consumers, especially homeowners are left without recourse due to the to change in consumer protection laws.

See:

 Read more... 

Fooled by Tort Reformers?
 
Businesses File More Lawsuits Than Private Citizens
Tuesday, 26 October 2004

Public Citizens
Oct. 4, 2004 - U.S.Businesses File Four Times More Lawsuits Than Private Citizens And Are Sanctioned Much More Often for Frivolous Suits
But Corporate America and Political Allies Bush and Cheney Campaign to Limit Citizens’ Rights to Sue...American businesses file four times as many lawsuits as do individuals represented by trial attorneys, and they are penalized by judges much more often for pursuing frivolous litigation, according to a report issued today by Public Citizen.

Read more...
 
Texans Still at Odds Over Bush's Legal Reforms
Wednesday, 22 September 2004
Texans Still at Odds Over Bush's Legal Reforms
By David G. Savage, Times Staff Writer
On his first day as governor of Texas , George W. Bush declared that limiting lawsuits was an ""emergency issue"" for his state…"" Texas has gone from one of the most friendly states for consumer protection to one of the most anti-consumer states,"" said University of Houston law professor Richard M. Alderman, an expert on consumer rights. ""It all began in 1995. Bush oversaw a significant retreat for consumer protection, and it was all done under the guise of attacking 'frivolous' lawsuits.""… The impact has been felt by home buyers such as Mary and Keith Cohn, whose elegant new residence in this well-off Houston suburb came with a leaky roof that led to rotting and moldy wallboard throughout the structure. After their daughters became ill, the Cohns moved out. The repairs ultimately cost more than $300,000….
Read more...
 
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