Texans for Lawsuit Reform

Texans for Lawsuit Reform
Basic facts
Location:	Houston, Texas
Type:	501(c)(6)
Affiliation:	Bipartisan
Top official:	Dick Weekley, Chairman
Founder(s):	Dick Weekley, Leo Linbeck, Dick Trabulsi, and Hugh Rice Kelly
Year founded:	1994
Website:	Official website

Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit organization that supports changes to Texas' legal code. The organization describes its goal as "to keep litigation in its traditional and appropriate role in our society...A lawsuit should not be used to obtain “windfall” riches for a lawyer and his client."

Background

Dick Weekley, Leo Linbeck, Dick Trabulsi, and Hugh Rice Kelly founded Texans for Lawsuit Reform in 1994. Weekley was a real estate broker and developer and the founder of Weekley Properties, David Weekley Homes, and the Weekley Development Company. Linbeck was the chairman and chief executive officer of the Linbeck Group, a construction firm, and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Americans for Fair Taxation. Trabulsi was an attorney and businessman active in retail, real estate, and banking. Kelly was an attorney and executive with Reliant Energy and CenterPoint Energy, both local utilities.

As of September 2025, Texans for Lawsuit Reform had the following mission statement:

“

TLR's mission is to foster freedom, innovation and job creation by advocating for a fair, efficient and predictable civil justice system staffed by competent and independent judges who apply the constitution and laws as written.

”

Leadership

As of September 2025, the following individuals sat on the board of directors of Texans for Lawsuit Reform:

• Dick Weekley, chairman
• Emerson Hankamer, vice chairman
• Lee Parsley, president & general counsel
• Mary Tipps, executive director
• Fred W. Heldenfels IV, treasurer
• JJ Isbell
• Steve Oden
• Jeff Shellebarger
• Danny Signorelli
• Marc Watts
• Michael Weekley
• Hugh Rice Kelly

Work and activities

Legislative and policy work

As of September 2025, Texans for Legal Reform supported policy changes in the following 12 issue areas:

Asbestos
Asbestos litigation is the longest-running mass tort in the nation, and a classic example of lawyer-driven lawsuit abuse.

For decades, a group of personal injury trial lawyers manipulated the legal system to obtain fees for themselves by filing lawsuits on behalf of tens of thousands of uninjured people whom the lawyers identified and recruited through questionable means. The lawyers then used people who were suffering from malignant mesothelioma or another debilitating asbestos-related disease as leverage to make money off the lawsuits they filed for the uninjured clients they had recruited.

In the early 2000s, some of the same personal injury trial lawyers began using the asbestos litigation model to pursue silicosis lawsuits. As was the case in many asbestos lawsuits, within a few years, these lawyers had filed cases on behalf of thousands of plaintiffs who were not suffering from any silica-caused disease.

No one disputes that inhalation of asbestos fibers or pulverized silica can cause serious illness, but unfounded lawsuits filed by personal injury trial lawyers were draining the system that was meant to help those who had truly been hurt, and delaying justice for sick individuals.

Starting in 2005, the Texas Legislature took steps to end abusive asbestos and silica litigation. Over the course of several legislative sessions, Texas passed common-sense reforms to ensure that any Texan who is truly sick with an asbestos- or silica-related disease can quickly obtain his day in court. At the same time, Texas’ reforms shut down the ability of personal injury trial lawyers to profit from unethically mass recruiting clients.

Attorneys
When Texans need legal advice, they should be confident their attorney is acting both ethically and lawfully to represent them. Attorneys play an important role in the legal system, helping Texans seek justice in the courts when they have a legitimate dispute.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Texas had a reputation for jackpot justice because powerful personal injury trial lawyers had controlled the Legislature and courts for decades, stifling efforts to promote accountability and ethical standards within their ranks. Over several years, the Legislature has taken steps to right the course. However, more can be done to ensure attorneys represent their clients in an ethical and lawful manner.

Consumer Protection
All Texans deserve to be protected from people and businesses who act unfairly or in bad faith when selling goods or services. But before tort reform, Texas’ consumer protection laws were being used by attorneys pursuing all kinds of civil cases, not just lawsuits involving ordinary consumers.

In fact, in some cases, all parties were multi-billion-dollar international corporations. Texas had lost the focus on consumers in its consumer protection laws. Even in true consumer cases, very few defendants could afford the risk inherent in fighting one of these lawsuits. The burden to prove a violation of Texas’ main consumer protection statute was very low, while the damages the plaintiff might recover—such as tripled actual damages and mental anguish damages—could be crippling to a business. For more than two decades, the Texas Legislature has worked to reach a balance in its consumer protection laws that allows Texans (not giant corporations) to recover from bad actors when cheated in the marketplace, without creating an incentive for unnecessary litigation that hurts economic growth and imposes a hidden tort tax on all goods and services.

Courts and Judges
Our legal system cannot function without competent, fair and honest judges to interpret and apply the laws. With more than 3,100 judges serving on courts across Texas, it is critical that we continue to improve the quality and stability of our judiciary, and ensure that those who are elected to the bench are principled and fair.

Damages
A tort case is one in which a plaintiff seeks to recover damages for an injury to himself or his property that was caused by the wrongful conduct of the defendant. Torts include injuries caused by negligence, a defective product, trespassing on property and many other kinds of actions deemed wrongful by law.

In tort cases, our laws typically allow a plaintiff to recover damages to make him whole (actual damages) and damages to punish the wrongdoer (punitive damages). Actual damages can be broken into two categories: economic damages, which is the amount of money necessary to make the plaintiff financially whole, and non-economic damages, which includes compensation for things like pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of relationships with family members.

Historically, Texas law varied in how it allocated responsibility for an injury, and thus, responsibility for paying the damages awarded in a civil case. These laws were harsh and unfair, and as they existed in Texas at various times in the past, created incentives for abusive litigation, yielding inconsistent results and jackpot recoveries in some cases. The unpredictability caused by these laws created a difficult environment for businesses and professionals in Texas. The inconsistency in outcomes made the civil justice system seem arbitrary and unfair to both plaintiffs and defendants.

Frivolous Litigation
Frivolous or groundless lawsuits are those that are not based on facts or the law. We recall extreme examples of frivolous lawsuits from news reports, and we know these cases can be expensive, stressful and time consuming for those fighting them. That’s why it is critical for Texas to have a process for courts to deal with frivolous lawsuits.

Texas has long required lawyers to certify that a lawsuit is not groundless and is not brought in bad faith, to harass a defendant, or to delay or increase the cost of litigation. Over the years, both the Texas Legislature and Texas Supreme Court have taken steps to strengthen the law to ensure frivolous lawsuits don’t tie up our courts and create unnecessary and expensive litigation against Texans.

Hail/Windstorm/TWIA
Since 2009, storm-chasing lawyers have used natural disasters as opportunities to line their pockets at the expense of all Texans. By exploiting Texas’ consumer protection laws, storm-chasing lawyers created a lucrative business model that led to an explosion of lawsuits statewide.

Not only was this litigation unnecessary to resolve many property owners’ insurance claims, but it nearly bankrupted the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) and led private insurers to raise insurance rates and reduce or stop offering coverage in parts of Texas.

Lawsuit Procedures
With more than 1.4 million new civil cases filed in the Lone Star State in 2022, it’s critical that Texas’ courts follow laws and procedures that provide an effective and efficient resolution of lawsuits.

The Texas Legislature has taken significant steps to improve efficiency, prevent abusive litigation from impeding and delaying the process of justice, and make the appellate courts available to all parties to a lawsuit. This important work will continue through future legislative sessions as new challenges arise.

Medical Liability
The Lone Star State’s population growth presents a number of challenges, including ensuring that Texans have access to healthcare. A key component of ensuring access to quality healthcare is having enough hospitals and doctors to provide care across the state.

In the past, access to healthcare was threatened in Texas because of an excessive number of unwarranted lawsuits against physicians and hospitals. The volume of lawsuits and the unpredictability of their outcomes caused doctors’ and hospitals’ liability insurance premiums to skyrocket. This high cost, along with the risk and stress of non-meritorious lawsuits, drove many physicians to leave Texas. The flight of physicians and other medical professionals from Texas was especially pronounced in high-risk specialties, like obstetrics, and in certain areas of the state, like south Texas and many rural areas.

Over the years, the Texas Legislature has enacted comprehensive and historic reforms to help doctors spend less time in the courtroom fighting unnecessary lawsuits and more time treating patients. At the same time, Texans can pursue legitimate cases against doctors and hospitals that cause harm through negligence or intentional misconduct.

The common-sense reforms enacted by the Legislature brought more predictability into the system, allowing medical liability insurance premiums to drop substantially, and helping attract doctors and other medical professionals to the state. As a result, Texas is now home to a robust medical community, including many world-class hospitals that have been able to expand patient services and develop innovative treatment programs. The work done by the Texas Legislature to guarantee access to healthcare is a national example of tort reform delivering on its promises and improving lives.

Personal Injury, Wrongful Death and Other Torts
When someone is injured through the actions of another, they deserve reasonable compensation for their injuries. But whether it was a car accident, slip and fall or other type of lawsuit, by the mid-1980s personal injury trial lawyers had pushed Texas law out of balance.

Common-sense tort reforms have helped ensure injured Texans still receive the compensation they are due without creating opportunities for lawsuit abuse and massive paydays for personal injury trial lawyers. The Texas Legislature has continued to ensure state laws are fair and honest by passing the following bills:

Product Liability
The cost of excessive, unnecessary and frivolous lawsuits is added by manufacturers, distributors and retailers to the price consumers pay for products. This “tort tax” costs American consumers billions of dollars each year.

Over the years, the Texas Legislature has addressed abuses in product liability litigation by passing a number of common-sense laws to allow consumers who are sold a defective product to have their day in court, while curtailing the ability of lawyers to pursue abusive lawsuits.

Venue
“Venue” in a civil or criminal case means the county or particular geographic area in which a lawsuit may be properly filed. Venue deals with the locality of a lawsuit.

Because of variations in the competence and fairness of some judges and juries, some states (or counties within a state) are regarded as “better” than others for certain kinds of cases. When a plaintiff manipulates the system in order to file a lawsuit in one of these preferred venues—typically by adding parties to the case who have little or nothing to do with the matter in dispute—it is called venue shopping.

Notable endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

This section displays endorsements this organization made in elections within Ballotpedia's coverage scope.

Notable ballot measure endorsements by Texans for Lawsuit Reform

Measure	Position	Outcome
Texas Proposition 12, Change Membership and Authority of State Commission on Judicial Conduct Amendment (2025)  source	Support	On the ballot
Texas Proposition 13, Increase Mandatory Retirement Age for State Judges Amendment (2023)  source	Support	Defeated
Texas Proposition 4, Changes to Eligibility for Certain Judicial Offices Amendment (2021)  source	Support	Approved

Affiliations

Texans for Lawsuit Reform has an affiliated political action committee, TLRPAC. The organization also has an affiliated 501(c)(3) nonprofit research organization, the Texans for Lawsuit Reform Foundation.

Finances

The following is a breakdown of Texans for Lawsuit Reform's revenues and expenses from 2004 to 2023. The information comes from ProPublica.

Texans for Lawsuit Reform financial data 2004-2023

Year	Revenue	Expenses
2004	$2.5 million	$2.3 million
2005	$3.8 million	$3.4 million
2006	$4.1 million	$2.0 million
2007	$3.7 million	$3.5 million
2008	$3.4 million	$2.2 million
2009	$2.9 million	$3.3 million
2010	$2.5 million	$2.6 million
2011	$3.7 million	$4.1 million
2012	$3.0 million	$2.1 million
2013	$3.3 million	$2.9 million
2014	$3.3 million	$2.4 million
2015	$3.5 million	$3.1 million
2016	$2.8 million	$2.5 million
2017	$3.3 million	$3.9 million
2018	$3.3 million	$2.8 million
2019	$3.6 million	$3.9 million
2020	$3.3 million	$2.8 million
2021	$4.0 million	$4.0 million
2022	$4.0 million	$3.5 million
2023	$4.5 million	$4.6 million\

See also

• What is an influencer?
• 501(c)(6)
• PAC

External links

• Texans for Lawsuit Reform official website
• Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC official website
• Texans for Lawsuit Reform Foundation official website
• Texans for Lawsuit Reform on Facebook
• Texans for Lawsuit Reform on X
• Texans for Lawsuit Reform on LinkedIn