Lone Star Tort Reform

The WSJ Editorial Page highlights Texas's new tort reform bill in WSJ.com - Ten-Gallon Tort Reform. (Paid site only, sorry!)
"The numbers tell the story. Texas is down to three medical liability insurers. Fourteen of 17 have disappeared in the past two years alone. In some parts of the state, there are 300 lawsuits for every 100 doctors. No matter that 85% of these suits fail; at $20,000-$40,000 a pop to put up a defense, doctors can't afford the sky-high insurance rates. Thank the trial lawyers. Of the state's 254 counties, 154 have no obstetrician. Wide swaths of Texas, the nation's second most populous state, have neither a neurosurgeon nor an orthopedic surgeon.
"That said, legal reform didn't happen in Texas because its politically powerful and well-heeled plaintiffs' attorneys developed a conscience. It happened in large part because Texans started putting Republicans in office. The Democratic Party/trial attorney co-dependency is well-known in Washington. But in Texas, their coziness is legendary. For decades the Texas tort bar had its way with the Democrat-controlled legislature and many courts around the state, which elects its judges.
"Things started to change some in the mid-1990s when George W. Bush replaced Democrat Ann Richards as Governor. It was the election last November, however, that finally made real tort reform possible. For the first time in 130 years, the GOP found itself in control of the legislature. A similar scenario has played out in other places, such as Arkansas and Georgia, where serious reform efforts have followed party changeover. Tort reform is now one of the sharpest dividing lines between our two major parties."

Perhaps this is a good example of Federalism in action. The battleground here should be the States. As states adopt sensible guidelines, business and their tax revenues will follow.