Follow-up: Officials Want Review of Privately Funded Prosecutions

[TexasTowelie]

From the state Capitol to county executive offices, officials are questioning whether an unusually chummy relationship between a giant insurer and the Travis County district attorney’s office should stand.

The quick reactions came in the wake of a six-month investigation of the public-private partnership by The Texas Tribune and the Austin American-Statesman. Under the arrangement, allowed under a decades-old state law, privately held Texas Mutual Insurance Company funds a special unit in the DA’s office dedicated to prosecuting acts of fraud against the company.

Travis County Judge Sarah Eckhardt, a Democrat, said Monday she is consulting with county lawyers about the legality and appropriateness of the arrangement and is awaiting their response.

She has placed an item on the Travis County Commissioners Court’s Sept. 22 agenda to discuss the court’s responsibility and authority, if any, relating to the contract between Texas Mutual and the DA’s office.

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2015/09/14/officials-wants-review-privately-funded-prosecutio/

Earlier thread:
Justice for hire? Giant insurer pays government lawyers to pursue fraud charges

[hobbit709]

1. The stress of dealing with TX Mutual on a workmen's comp case helped cause Donna's heart attack.

[TexasTowelie]

2. Insurance companies and employers already have the upper hand on workers' compensation claims

with their ability to direct which doctors to use after a settlement is signed. They also can deny certain procedures and prescription medication during the medical review of claims. The changes that occurred because of legislation during the 1990-2010 timeframe have made most workers' compensation claims unprofitable for plaintiff's lawyers to take to trial.

BTW, you are giving away your age with the term "workmen's". The politically correct term is workers' since it is not gender specific.