Texas Watch—Consumer Protection. Corporate Accountability. Citizen Advocacy.

In a major opinion today, the Texas Supreme Court overturned more than 20 years of established law to protect workers’ comp insurance providers from claims by injured workers.  In the opinion, Texas Mutual Insurance Co. v. Timothy J. Ruttiger, the Court ruled that injured workers who have been subjected to bad faith claims handling by their workers’ comp insurance provider are not protected by the Texas Insurance Code’s provisions against “unfair settlement practices.”

“Once again, the Texas Supreme Court is upending established law, ignoring the legislature’s clear intent, and overturning its own precedents to shield big insurance companies from responsibility to hard working Texans,” said Alex Winslow, executive director of the citizen advocacy group Texas Watch.  “Today’s decision allows insurance companies to purposely deny, delay, or underpay legitimate claims without fear of penalty or public accountability.”

Workers in Texas already face significant obstacles to accountability following a workplace injury.  Workers are already forced into a broken and inadequate comp system that severely limits their legal rights and oftentimes does not provide adequate benefits.  The Court’s decision today further restricts the ability of workers to be fully and promptly compensated for their injury.

The Court’s 6-3 majority decision was written by Justice Phil Johnson with Justice Don Willett writing a separate concurring opinion and Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson writing for the dissent.

For more information, read our Case Highlight of this decision.