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

Despite a professed desire to adhere to fundamental constitutional principles, Governor Rick Perry’s tenure has been marked by radical changes that arbitrarily and dangerously restrict the legal and constitutional rights of Texans of all walks of life, including patients, families, workers, homeowners, senior citizens, policyholders, and small business owners.  This report discusses the most notable of these statutory changes and details their devastating human cost, namely, how they have closed the courthouse door on many Texas families. Read More »

AUSTIN (KXAN) – The safety of construction workers takes center stage in Austin on Thursday.

The city, along with the Department of Labor and the Workers Defense Project, will be talking about a new survey they just conducted.

They looked at 65 different construction sites and found more than 100 safety and wage violations.

They were looking for one specific thing: checking to see if work sites were in compliance with an Austin ordinance requiring workers to get 10-minute rest breaks every four hours.

More than half of surveyed workers said their employers violate that ordinance.

Read More: KXAN

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said today that Texas has made progress on construction-worker safety but needs to do more to improve workplace protections amid its recent spurt of job creation.

“I have spent some time out in Texas,” Solis told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast, “and there are some great concerns I have with respect to worker protection.”

The Labor Department put more feet on the ground in Texas after noticing that the state had suffered “a large number” of fatalities and injuries among construction workers a couple of years ago, she said. Solis said she held a work-safety summit in Texas in 2010 in light of the statistics.

Read More: Houston Chronicle

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.” Read More »

What does it mean to be a middle class wage-earner and consumer in Texas?

For too many families, it means a struggle to make ends meet.  Texans want safe, stable jobs with decent wages and reasonable benefits that allow them to raise a family, own a home, and save for a comfortable retirement.  Much has been made lately about job growth in Texas.  Unfortunately, for middle class Texans, the so-called “Texas Miracle” has been more myth than reality.  So, how does Texas stack up to the rest of the nation on key quality of life indicators? Read More »

Today the jury reached its verdict in the Jamie Leigh Jones case. Ms. Jones fought for years to have her case heard by a jury of her peers in open court rather than in a secret binding arbitration proceeding.

The following is a statement from Alex Winslow, executive director of Texas Watch. Read More »

If you missed the premiere of HOT COFFEE, don’t worry.  You can still catch this must-see film about how corporate interests twisted the public debate against our civil justice system.  HBO and HBO2 are re-airing the film several times over the next few weeks. Read More »

We’ve all heard the story of Stella Liebeck and the infamous cup of McDonald’s coffee.  But, most of us don’t know what really happened.  The severity of the burns, the hundreds of complaints and injuries that preceded Ms. Liebeck’s injury, McDonald’s conscious internal corporate decision to keep the coffee at such high temperatures.

An important new film, “Hot Coffee” – premiering on HBO on Monday June 27th at 8:00 PM CT – features explores the McDonald’s case and others to show how corporate and insurance interests have manipulated the debate to turn public opinion against our constitutional right to Trial by Jury.

This is Must See TV! Read More »

Our Director of Legislative Affairs Ware Wendell gave impassioned testimony to the Senate State Affairs Committee against HB 274 yesterday.  This is the bill that immunizes polluters, insurance companies, and other corporate wrongdoers by threatening families and businesses with having to pay the bloated legal costs of corporate defendants even if they win in court.  Watch Ware’s testimony. Read More »

A coalition of organizations representing varied interests and constituencies joined forces to oppose HB 274, the so-called “loser pays” bill, today.  In a memo to the Senate State Affairs committee, the coalition wrote that “HB 274 has broad implications that devastate the legal rights of Texans of all walks of life.” Read More »