In testimony before the Texas House of Representatives Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence Committee, CFA’s Director of Insurance Douglas Heller opposed HB 4806, a bill that would limit the recovery of damages in civil actions and make it harder for consumers to hold insurance companies accountable in court. This “tort reform” strengthens insurance companies at the expense of consumers and does nothing to bring down insurance costs.

In his testimony, Director Heller commented that “Texas policyholders need relief from high premiums. But tort reform never provides relief.  If it did, we wouldn’t keep coming back to hard markets and more calls for yet more tort reform. We have studied these insurance cycles for decades. Tort reform puts more money in insurers’ pockets, but it never takes less out of ours.

The better path toward relieving policyholders would be to demand accountability for these insurers so the price we pay for coverage reflects the risk associated with causing crashes or losing property, rather than letting insurers continue to raise rates however much they want while limiting our ability to make sure they pay a fair claim.”