Facts Show Wentworth’s Alliance with Personal Injury Trial Lawyers.

(San Antonio, Texas) Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC said today that statements made by Sen. Jeff Wentworth at Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce debate Wednesday regarding his tort reform record were deceptive. Wentworth told the Chamber that he would “fight any roll back of the current lawsuit reforms that we’ve made over the past 17 years from 1994 to 2011.”

“Time and again, on key contested tort reform issues, Sen. Wentworth has been allied with personal injury and mass tort trial lawyers. In fact, contrary to his statement at the Chamber debate he has repeatedly supported legislation that would roll back the lawsuit reforms that are critical to keeping the Texas economy strong, increasing jobs and assuring that Texans have access to doctors and health care,” said TLR PAC spokesperson, Sherry Sylvester.

Wentworth’s record on lawsuit reform legislation includes:

• During the 2011 special session, Sen. Wentworth was the only Republican senator to vote with 11 Democrat senators against the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) Reform Bill. The opposition was led by Steve Mostyn, a personal injury trial lawyer who contributed $10 million to Democrats in 2010.

• In 2011 Sen. Wentworth authored an exceptionally expansive qui tam bill, which would have created vast new and seemingly endless liabilities for anyone doing business with the State of Texas or for any activities related to any expenditures made by or to the State.

• In 2011 Sen. Wentworth introduced a bill that would shift the litigation playing field drastically in favor of plaintiff lawyers by dramatically altering the cost-shifting offer-of-settlement mechanism enacted into law as part of HB 4, the comprehensive tort reform legislation of 2003.

• In 2009, Sen. Wentworth sided with personal injury trial lawyers on the “Paid or Incurred” Bill which would have allowed a plaintiff to recover the “phantom damages” of medical costs that are billed but which have not been paid and are not owed.

• In 2009, Sen. Wentworth sided with the trial lawyers on the Asbestos Causation Bill which would have undermined a unanimous decision by the Texas Supreme Court (known as the Borg-Warner case), which held that Texas causation law and restrictions on junk science apply in asbestos-related lawsuits.

• In 2009, Sen. Wentworth sided with the trial lawyers who wanted to reverse a correctly decided opinion by the Texas Supreme Court (known as the Entergy case), which held that the Workers Compensation Law does not prohibit a landowner, acting as his or her own general contractor, from buying a comprehensive workers’ compensation policy for all workers on the worksite and preventing unnecessary third-party lawsuits.

• Although Sen. Wentworth voted for the original medical liability reform bill in the Senate in 2003, he then actively campaigned against the constitutional amendment (Proposition 12) establishing the caps on non-economic damages (such as mental anguish) in medical liability lawsuits, which was the most critical part of that legislation.

TLR PAC is the political arm of Texans for Lawsuit Reform, the state's largest civil justice reform organization. TLR is a bipartisan, volunteer-led coalition with more than 17,000 supporters residing in 869 Texas communities and representing 1,266 different businesses, professions and trades. For more information about TLR PAC visit www.tlrpac.com.