AUSTIN – A Texas legal reform group is calling on the Texas Legislature to rein in runaway court awards known as nuclear verdicts, do more to protect Texans from ambulance-chasing lawyers and require transparency when it comes to third-party litigation financing.
The call from Texans Against Lawsuit Abuse comes as the organization is marking Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week, which is observed this year October 5-9.
TALA says Texas is home to some of the nation’s largest nuclear verdicts, which are court awards exceeding $10 million. Between 2009 and 2023, Texas led the nation with 207 nuclear verdicts, totaling more than $45 billion.
Wood
“These massive court awards – and the legal practices that enable them – not only threaten our economy, but they also contribute to the Texas lawsuit tax, making everything from health care to insurance to groceries less affordable for consumers,” TALA spokesman Robert Wood said. “Research by Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse shows that the lawsuit tax costs each of us an average of $1,943 more for goods and services every year – higher than the national average of $1,771 per person.”
Taken together, Wood said, these trends landed Texas on the American Tort Reform Association’s 2025-2026 Judicial Hellholes Watch List. ATRA’s annual Judicial Hellholes report, which highlights courts and jurisdictions in which justice is not applied in a fair and equitable manner.
Wood said the Judicial Hellholes placement is a “dire warning” that Texas’ record of business excellence is under attack.
TALA is asking state lawmakers to rein in the inflated medical costs that are contributing to nuclear verdicts and to cast a light on the financial relationships that appear to be behind these inflated damages.
Wood said TALA is also concerned with the continued problem of barratry or ambulance chasing.
“According to news reports, ambulance-chasing lawyers and their intermediaries continue to prey on accident victims despite our state’s barratry laws,” he said. “At TALA, we are highlighting the barratry problem on our social media channels and other public awareness efforts.
But we urge state lawmakers to review the issue for any additional legislative measures that can be enacted to protect Texans.”
When the Legislature convenes in January, Wood says TALA also will urge legislators to tackle the problem of third-party litigation financing, so the public knows who is behind these funding agreements.
“Third-party litigation funding poses a threat to the state’s economic and security interests,” Wood said, noting the practice involves hedge funds and other financiers investing in lawsuits. These entities “invest” in lawsuits in exchange for a percentage of any settlement or judgment.
Wood said there are few guardrails or limits on this type of lawsuit funding.
“These sorts of lawsuits also pose considerable risks to our national security,” he said. “Litigation experts, federal lawmakers, business and trade associations, and even former military generals have expressed concerns about the lack of transparency in third-party litigation and what these lawsuits could mean for our economic interests as a nation and our national security.”
Charles Silver, a professor at The University of Texas School of Law, and his co-author Georgetown University Law Center’s David A. Hyman, agreed.
“Because third-party litigation funding allows funders to use litigation to advance their own interests, funders with ties to foreign countries/adversaries may see litigation as a vehicle for acquiring secrets, and harming U.S. national and economic security interests,” they wrote in a paper.
Wood said the civil justice “should never be a vehicle for greed.”
“Anything that threatens fairness in our courts, undermines job creation or costs consumers, deserves the Legislature’s attention,” he said.
