Businesses line up against Dan Patrick's high-priority insurance bill
Major business interests are lining up against one of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick’s top priorities — a bill that would make it harder for Texans to force their insurance companies to pay up when calamity strikes.
Patrick and his allies say the bill, Senate Bill 10, is needed to stop greedy trial lawyers from cashing in on hail damage lawsuits. But the word "hail" doesn’t appear anywhere in the legislation, and this week businesses ranging from 7-Eleven to Ryan LLC — founded and led by Republican mega-donor Brint Ryan — conveyed their deep opposition to it in a letter sent to Patrick and other top Republican leaders.
The blistering critique of the bill, which has a companion, House Bill 1774, in the House, was sent on behalf of the major corporate interests by Haynes & Boone lawyer Ernest Martin. He warns it “greatly harms businesses” by making it harder for anyone who insures property in Texas to get paid after filing a claim. Trial lawyer interests have been making the same argument about the impact on average Texans, but they don’t have the kind of political stroke business groups enjoy at the Capitol.
“This insurance bill does more harm to Texas business policyholders than it does to prevent litigation abuses by homeowners or their storm chasing lawyers,” Martin wrote. He said the legislation would “thwart Texas businesses from recovering legitimate claims under insurance policies they purchased at great cost.”
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2017/03/01/businesses-line-against-dan-patricks-pet-insurance-bill/