The fact that the campaign against this measure was funded almost entirely by personal injury lawyers would have shed some important light on your story.

According to reports filed at the Texas Ethics Commission a week before the Sept. 13 election, personal injury lawyers spent $7 million through their “Save Texas Courts” political action committee in trying to defeat Proposition 12. And that does not include the money spent in the final week of the campaign, an amount that presumably will be in the millions considering the statewide TV commercials aired and mailings sent out just before the election.

One of the “non-partisan” groups your story quotes, Texans for Public Justice, itself contributed to this PAC and actively worked against Proposition 12; this should not only call their objectivity into question, but should raise questions about their funding sources.

When personal injury lawyers are throwing that much money into a single campaign, it’s a safe bet they are trying to protect their pocketbook.

Jon Opelt
Executive Director
Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse
Houston