Posts for Texas

Editor's Note: Project Lawsuit Abuse regularly highlights lawsuit abuse news from across the country. Today, Travis Akin, Executive Director of Illinois Lawsuit Abuse Watch, contributed a guest post for Project Lawsuit Abuse.

Texas Governor Rick Perry is on a mission to lure Illinois businesses to Texas and Illinois politicians are none too pleased about it.

Perry had this to say about his visit to Illinois:

Tort reformers have been turning up all over the internet recently. We took the liberty of rounding up some of the standouts. You may recognize a few friends of Project Lawsuit Abuse in there. Here are some of the newsmakers from around the country.
 
Report: Sacramento city, county spent $38.5M in litigation over four years

Ambulance chasing. You’ve probably heard of it – it occurs when personal injury lawyers, seeking new business, decide to visit hospital beds, make unsolicited calls or even show up at funeral homes following the accidental death of a loved one.

Ambulance chasing, or “barratry,” as it’s known in technical language, is clearly morally reprehensible. Attorneys who practice it prey upon people when they are most emotionally vulnerable. Respectable lawyers know that plaintiffs with real concerns will seek out representation on their own; attorneys who make unsolicited visits to injured people are simply attempting to exploit the system for profit.

We’ve told you about the problem of lawsuit lending before – it’s a dangerous practice, where lenders provide loans to folks while they’re awaiting legal settlements. Theoretically, people would use these loans to pay off immediate expenses, like medical bills, and then pay them back after receiving legal awards.

Unfortunately, lawsuit loans don’t always work out as intended. Lawsuit lenders often charge outrageous interest rates, meaning that borrowers find themselves with more debt than they started with!