Hail Litigation, Driven By Storm-Chasing Lawyers, Is Taxing Texans

The Texas House Insurance Committee recently met to hear testimony on the impact of mass hail litigation — a surge driven by trial lawyers out for profit, a tort reform advocate argued during the assembly. In 2012, two “biblical hailstorms,” as former Texas Trial Lawyers Association President Bryan Blevins put it at the meeting, ravaged Hidalgo County. Several months later, a flood of lawsuits against insurers followed. Since 2012, there has been an increase in hail claims involving an attorney or public adjuster, according to data presented by the Texas Department of Insurance, who was on hand for the Dec. 1 gathering.