CRTX Newsletter: June 6, 2025 Edition

Senate Bill 30 (SB 30) was defeated in the 2025 Texas Legislative Session.

SB 30 was a dangerous piece of legislation that would have violated the constitutional rights of Texans who have incurred physical injuries caused by individuals or businesses.

This legislation was promoted by Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), co-founded by Houston businessman Dick Weekley. TLR is not a grassroots movement, rather it is a front group for corporate interests. Weekley’s TLR PAC is funded by wealthy businessmen, including insurance companies and corporations. TLR raised and spent over $20 million in the 2024 election cycle, supporting Republican candidates and legislators. This was done to influence Republican legislators, so that they would introduceand support bills like SB30 to protect corporate profits over legitimate injury claims of Texans. Republicanlegislators received over $12.5 million in donationsfrom the TLR PAC.

Texans for Lawsuit Reform would be better named,“Texans for Corporate Greed.”

TLR routinely supports RINOs over conservative candidates in the Republican Primary. TLR was adriving force behind the unsuccessful Texas House impeachment of Attorney General Ken Paxton.

SB 30 would have violated the Texas Constitution. Article 1, Section 13 of the Texas Constitution, that guarantees “All courts shall be open, and every person for an injury done him, in his lands, goods, person or reputation, shall have remedy by due course of law.” This constitutional provision ensures that you and other Texans have access to courts and meaningful compensation for injuries that have been inflicted upon you.

SB 30 would have restricted an injured person from being fairly compensated for injuries that they have sustained from an outside party by capping damages. The Texas Supreme Court has struck down similar caps as unconstitutional (Lucas v. United States, 1988). SB 30 would have placed corporate and insurance company profits over your constitutional right to be compensated for an injury inflicted upon you.

Texas Property and Casualty (P&C) Insurers made an estimated $3.5 billion in profits in 2023 and $6.7 billion in 2024, an increase of over 90%. TLR admittedthat SB 30 would not lower insurance rates. This bill was not about helping you, the consumer, but rather, about insulating corporations from liability for having caused negligent injuries, enabling them to make more profits at the expense of injured Texans.

Conservative Republicans of Texas engaged in a huge effort to fight Dick Weekley’s TLR and protect your Texas Constitutional Right to remedy for damages inflicted upon you by the greedy corporations and insurance companies. Targeted Texas Republican primary voters were sent 2,700,000 emails and 3,520,000 robocalls from Dr. Steve Hotze, CEO of Conservative Republicans of Texas, encouraging them to contact their legislators and tell them to oppose SB 30.

Kudos to Representative Mitch Little, who defended Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial before the Texas Senate, for providing the leadership that defeated SB 30. This was the first major defeat for TLR in 30 years.

In politics, money talks and TLR uses a megaphone. TLR’s influence over Republican legislators must be broken in order to protect your constitutional rights for fair and equitable remedies when you have been injured.