Sky-High Verdicts Threaten Texas Business

Austin, Texas - Nuclear verdicts are a huge driver of the skyrocketing insurance rates in Texas. A "nuclear verdict" is an award given by a jury that exceeds by several multiples the actual damages of the plaintiff. They are typically in excess of $10M dollars, but the key metric is their relation to the actual damages of the plaintiff. These verdicts make it increasingly difficult to price umbrella liability policies in Texas and have greatly reduced the number of carriers willing to offer large limits in the umbrella markets. This has in turn driven up the price of umbrella layers in many cases by more than 100%!

A collection of Texas small businesses have joined together to push the Legislature to curb these nuclear verdicts. They introduced two bills during the 2025 Legislative Session - SB 30 and SB 39. Both bills successfully passed the Senate, but we met with severe opposition at the Committee level in the Texas House. These bills attempted to curb nuclear verdicts by giving juries more information about whether the damages sought by plaintiff were inflated by medical providers in league with plaintiff attorneys. These were modest efforts at tort reform, but they were too much for the plaintiff-attorney friendly members of the Judiciary & Civil Justice Committee and other members of the Texas House.

We encourage all business owners to get involved with the Lone Star Economic Alliance https://www.lseatx.com/

They will need our help in the next session (in 2027), if Texas has any hope to curb these nuclear verdicts. It is important to note that both Florida and Georgia passed meaningful tort reform this past year to address these same concerns. Nothing less than Texas's reputation as the best state for business in the country is at stake!