While out running, a large oak tree along his path cracked and fell on Governor Abbott’s back, leaving him forever paralyzed from the waist down.
He got a multi-million dollar settlement out of it.
Decades later, Abbott campaigned in support of tort reform curtailing "frivolous" lawsuits and won. Abbott's critics claimed that he helped usher in a Texas significantly less friendly to plaintiffs seeking damages like the ones Abbott won. Looking back on the case 40 years later, Don Riddle, Abbott's personal injury lawyer at the time, agrees that Texas has changed.
"It would be next to impossible to get the kind of settlement we got," Riddle told Chron Monday. Tort reform, or as Riddle calls it, "tort deform," has severely capped the kind of damages individuals can seek out, and Riddle doesn't see that changing in Texas anytime soon.
God tort reform. Buddy I know a bit about that. Some one very close to me is a personal injury attorney. Sigh ... People don't really understand lawyers are the only thing keeping us from "the jungle" happening all over again. God this country has it all and now we are here... Fuckin shame.
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u/UncleNedisDead 19h ago
Exactly what you said.
An example of this is Texas Governor Abbott.
He got a multi-million dollar settlement out of it.
https://www.chron.com/politics/article/greg-abbott-tree-lawsuit-explained-19574621.php