Recall that in 2009, just after the height of the fight against what we refer to as Obamacare, the HCRP held a series of “Health Care” town hall meetings. I attended the one that was held in Pasadena and was left scratching my head as to why Chairman Woofill would include a trial lawyer on the panel, one that stressed the need for “economic incentives” to make doctors to do what doctors should do. In my recap of that meeting, I wrote:
Next up was trial lawyer Robert W. Painter. Now, between you and me, I’m still scratching my head about this guy being on the panel. Oh, sure, he did a fine job of mis-representing the Texas Advance Directive Act, scaring people about “death panels”. So, I guess in that regard, he did his job of getting Republicans scared enough to be against the whole idea of healthcare reform But seriously, a trial lawyer at a Republican town hall saying that we need “economic incentives” (lawsuits for those of you in Rio Linda) to keep doctors honest? Holy crap, is this what it has come to? I’ll have more later on Mr. Painter and his scare tactics. One more thing, wouldn’t it be prudent to disclose that you are currently suing Memorial Hermann before telling a group of elderly people that they didn’t want to go to Memorial Hermann because Memorial Hermann is a death panel hospital? Very strange.
While trying to figure out why Jared had put that guy on the panel, I ran across an article detailing that Jared had lost a lawsuit in Somerville a couple of months earlier which quoted Jared as saying:
This is the second time a jury has ruled in favor of BNSF in a Somerville cancer case. Woodfill, who represents about 400 other plaintiffs, says it’s not over yet.
“This is a war. This is just one battle in a war to make these folks do the right thing and take care of the folks they have injured,” he said. “I’m not giving up on Somerville or the men who gave their lives to this plant.”
Little did I know that there was more to Jared’s not giving up on Somerville than the people he was “fighting” for. Turns out that Jared financed his “war” with hedge fund money, to the tune of more than $3.5 MILLION, according to the article. Money that he owes whether he wins some of these “battles” or not. Wow.
Woodfill signed up workers with skin cancer, like Krueger, and those with gastrointestinal cancers that he says can be caused by the chemicals used at the factory. He also signed up Somerville residents who never worked at the factory but had developed cancers. And he signed up property owners with no health problems, arguing that the value of their property had suffered.
“But for a hedge fund, I couldn’t afford to take on a railroad,” Woodfill said.
Wow. Again.
Now, I don’t mean to be picking on Jared. I’m sure that he thinks some of those people he signed up have legitimate claims. He did settle one of the cases in 2003 before losing the two court “battles”. But I do think that it is illustrative of the entire tort reform battle in Texas that a popular Governor ran on his success in putting caps on some lawsuits while at the same time the chairman of the largest Republican county party puts a trial lawyer on a health panel to declare that we need to eliminate the successes of that Governor.
Perhaps it is time for our new Republican dominated Texas legislature to put some teeth in to tort reform by requiring that losers pay. It is cheap and easy to file a lawsuit in Texas. Even Mr. Woodfill’s $3.5 million loan is peanuts compared to the potential gain if he wins just ONE of the 400 cases he filed.
But think about this. What if Mr. Woodfill and other plaintiff’s attorneys had to pay the millions of dollars that it costs to defend against frivolous lawsuits? Would they perhaps be a little more hesitant to sue?
BNSF’s general counsel, Charles Shewmake, said the company had carefully reviewed claims brought by its former workers and decided they had no merit. He said the claims by Somerville residents who did not work at the factory were “physically impossible and without any scientific basis.”
Company executives were outraged when they learned that a hedge fund was backing the lawsuits, Shewmake said. He said that BNSF had been forced to spend millions of dollars mounting its courtroom defense and defending its reputation.
“They’re stirring up cases that don’t need to be in the courthouses,” he said.