Time to Tell Your Local Lawmaker You Don’t Want Your Rights Eliminated
When insurance companies or corporate defendants lose at the courthouse, they hire their powerful lobbyists to change the laws – and the changes are never designed to help ordinary people or small businesses. The changes are usually aimed at taking away your rights, so it’s harder (or impossible) for ordinary folks to hold insurance companies or corporate defendants accountable for their misconduct.
This year, Texas policyholders can expect a serious run on their rights – and a dangerous one at that.
Right now, in Texas, when an insurance company cheats, lies, or breaks a promise, you can hold that company accountable – you can make it pay penalties, interest, and your lawyer fees. Now, insurance companies or corporate defendants want to get rid of those laws. Why on earth would we ever eliminate laws that protect ordinary citizens and small businesses? Because the insurance lobby and its friends are powerful, and donate tens of millions of dollars to elected officials. And because some insurance companies or corporate defendants make a habit of misbehaving, want to continue to do so, but are tired of being sued when they get caught.
insurance companies or corporate defendants and their lobby usually plan for months before a legislative session. They brainstorm and come up with a list of the things they would like to see changed, so that their companies can operate without any real checks and balances, and without fear of being held accountable by juries made up of ordinary citizens. What sorts of things do they have planned this time?
Take a look. This document was leaked by an insurance source, and lays out in considerable detail how insurance companies or corporate defendants want to screw ordinary citizens and businesses out of their rights. A few examples –
- They want to reduce what cheating insurers have to pay when they wrongfully delay and deny claims.
- They want to reduce interest payments that have to be made by slow paying insurers.
- They want to prevent insurance customers from being able to get professional help, or hiring lawyers – something the insurance companies or corporate defendants can afford to do, but most folks cannot.
- They want to help their insurer clients make more money by reducing the consequences of bad choices which harm insurer customers.
Texas insurers will try to make these changes with propaganda and lies. Remember when the insurance lobby told Texas that eliminating your right to sue doctors would reduce healthcare costs, and reduce your medical premiums? That was a lie. The insurance lobby helped pass laws that now effectively prevent you from suing your doctor, yet the cost of healthcare has only increased. But now, when a doctor commits serious malpractice in Texas, you are usually left without recourse.
The insurance companies or corporate defendants will lie again. This time, they will tell Texas that suing insurance companies or corporate defendants (to prevent them from lying, cheating, and misbehaving) hurts Texans, small business, and makes lawyers rich (they won’t mention how rich their executives become, pocketing your premiums, and never being held accountable for wrongdoing). The ads and propaganda will be slick. But the real goal, will be to make sure insurance companies or corporate defendants can behave however they want, without you having any power to stop them.
So stop them now. For good.
In the coming weeks and months, we will keep folks informed of legislative issues that affect ordinary citizens, with easy tips on how you and your business can protect your rights.
The lawyers at Daly & Black, P.C. stand ready to help you – but if you live in Texas, it’s time to get ready to help yourself. How? By contacting your local lawmakers to let them know you care about this issue, and that you don’t want to lose your rights to hold insurance companies or corporate defendants accountable.
If you want to know more about these issues, become involved, or how you can help now, please reach out to one of our attorneys.