Jenkins: Lawsuit Abuse is Driving Up Costs for All of Us

When my mom and dad opened the doors of their small business in San Antonio just after World War II, they focused on their customers, delivering pest control services across the city. They grew the business into a group of regional branches that now serve Texans across the state. ABC Home & Commercial Services remains family-owned and carries on my parents’ commitment to service.

Much has changed since I moved to Austin in 1983 to expand our business here, but the proliferation of abusive lawsuits is perhaps the most costly and egregious.  

While lawsuit abuse wasn’t top of mind for my mom and dad, it’s an unfortunate and costly reality for many small business owners today. There’s plenty to keep a small business owner awake at night, but unscrupulous personal injury lawyers shouldn’t be one of them.

Delivering pest control, landscaping, AC, plumbing and other services to residential and commercial customers means our employees can be found on city streets and highways daily.

Yet, the nature of our work and fleet of vehicles means some personal injury lawyers see an opportunity to line their wallets. Running relentless advertising campaigns on TV, radio, websites and billboards, these personal injury lawyers promote get-rich-quick schemes to Texans involved in any kind of accident, no matter how minor, no matter who’s at fault. Coupled with misleading litigation tactics, this lawsuit business model is lucrative and widespread, making millions for the law firms – money that is ultimately paid by all Texans. 

For service industry businesses like ours, margins are razor thin. So, the money some people are collecting for settling their frivolous or even fraudulent lawsuits is the same money that comes out of the pockets of our customers and employees.

We all pay for the cost of lawsuits, win or lose and whether we’re involved in a lawsuit or not. Lawsuit abuse can squelch a business’ plans to expand, hire new employees or deliver pay raises. As consumers, we pay more for products and services, including for liability insurance. For Texans, this ‘lawsuit tax’ is about $1,700 on average every year for each of us, well above the national average.

At ABC, safety always has been our top priority. We are thorough in our training and use innovative technology to ensure our employees – themselves each a participant in our profit-sharing program – are operating safely and responsibly. 

If we’re responsible for someone’s injury, we have no problem paying for damages. We want to be known as a responsible corporate citizen and a good neighbor, and we are.

But that’s not what this is about.

This is about a personal injury lawyer-fueled lawsuit lottery that bets on forcing good, honest businesses to pay out massive settlements or risk a costly trial and verdict that could close the business’ doors – whether or not the business has done anything wrong.

As a longtime supporter of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse and a member of the Lone Star Economic Alliance, I don’t stand alone. There are employers throughout the state who have joined together to advocate for fairness and transparency in the legal system and want the Legislature to address this problem.

We desperately need reforms to limit the ability of unscrupulous personal injury lawyers to shake down small businesses and make a windfall. We must address artificially inflated medical bills that feed unreasonable court awards known as ‘nuclear verdicts,’ provide medical bill transparency so patients and juries know the true cost of medical services, and implement a fair and consistent way to award non-economic damages, which are intangible and subjective.  Access to courts for legitimate lawsuits must be preserved, but today’s get-rich-quick lawsuit environment must be stopped.

Small business owners should be focused on jobs and providing services to help Texans thrive, not on lawsuits that drive up costs for everyone.

Let’s hope the Legislature agrees and acts.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Bobby Jenkins, president and CEO of ABC Home & Commercial Services in Austin. He serves on the board of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse of Central Texas and is a member of the Lone Star Economic Alliance.  

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