Posted: Thu, 23 Jun 2011 10:32 AM - 14,601 Readers

By: Jason Embry

TWIA a long way from being settled, U.S. Senate field in flux and Perry’s veto of texting bill was rare.

House and Senate are out until Friday.

The Senate passed its bill reforming the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association yesterday, but it remains far apart from the House. And Gov. Rick Perry said exactly what everyone wanted to hear after the Senate passed its bill.

Perry said, “There is still work to be done on this issue, and we must pass legislation to adequately compensate TWIA policy holders without enriching trial lawyers or further undermining TWIA’s financial stability. Reforming TWIA is imperative to protecting Texans from the effects of devastating hurricane seasons, and I look forward to this important legislation reaching my desk in the next week, otherwise I will be forced to call another special session to protect Texas taxpayers and homeowners.”

As Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune reports, “The fight over how to overhaul TWIA has become the latest proxy battle between two powerhouse legal lobbying groups: Texans for Lawsuit Reform and the Texas Trial Lawyers Association. TLR, which has long and successfully promoted tort reform, wants legislators to limit the number of lawsuits filed against TWIA and the amount of damages claimants can collect. TTLA, which represents plaintiffs’ lawyers, wants to preserve the ability of policyholders to sue and to recover money when they have been treated unfairly. … The House agrees with the approach supported by TLR. The group, which has given nearly $19 million to largely Republican lawmakers and candidates since 2000, wants strict limits on when policyholders can sue TWIA and how much they can be awarded when TWIA doesn’t honor policies. The House bill, which is also supported by Gov. Rick Perry, would allow policyholders only to recover actual damages from the storm even if TWIA intentionally dishonored the policy. Smithee said the House bill would ensure TWIA remains financially viable, that it would speed up the claims process for policyholders and that it would ease the burden on taxpayers statewide to pay for coastal storms. … The Senate approach aligns more with the position of the TTLA, which, along with the trial lawyer political action committee Texans for Insurance Reform, has given more than $13 million to lawmakers and candidates since 2000. TTLA president, lawyer Steve Mostyn, was the largest individual contributor during the 2010 elections — he, his law firm and his wife Amber Mostyn gave more than $9 million — and much of the money funded attack ads against Perry. Mostyn also represented many clients who sued TWIA after Hurricane Ike, and he made more than $4 million from those cases. Under the bill the Senate approved Wednesday, if TWIA failed to honor its policies, a claimant could sue for twice the actual damages, and they could recover ‘consequential damages,’ which are losses that result from TWIA’s refusal to cover the initial damages caused by the storm. Some senators, particularly those from coastal regions, are adamant that punitive damages are needed to ensure that TWIA doesn’t leave coastal policyholders in the lurch.”

*  Story Contributed by: Jason Embry