Senate Bill 10 in Texas aims to protect insurers from trial lawyers who want to cash in on hail damage lawsuits.
But critics of the proposed law put forth by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick believe that it will do more harm than good.
In a WacoTrib.com report, lawyer Ernest Martin said it would “greatly harm businesses” because it would make it hard for property owners to collect on their insurance claims.
The report quoted a letter he wrote as saying, “This insurance bill does more harm to Texas business policy holders than it does to prevent litigation abuses by homeowners or their storm chasing lawyers.”
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Furthermore, he said the legislation would “thwart Texas businesses from recovering legitimate claims under insurance policies they purchased at great cost.”
He added that “the insurance bill guts the effectiveness of the Prompt Pay statute, which is to incentivize insurance companies to err on the side of paying claims (in a timely manner).”
Meanwhile, spokeswoman for bill proponent Texans for Lawsuit Reform Lucy Nashed said that the bill pushes for “common sense reforms to stop…lawyer driven lawsuit abuse.”
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