There are age-old fights in Texas politics — urban versus rural, state versus local — and then there are those not quite at that level, but awfully close to it. One such conflict is between trial lawyers and the business community, with the Texas Legislature sandwiched in between.
Tort reform efforts in Texas revved up in the late 1980s as business groups decided to coalesce and mount opposition to the powerful trial lawyers lobby. In the early 1990s, as Republicans began to gain ground in the Texas Legislature, Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR) was formed by Dick Weekley, Leo Linbeck, Hugh Rice Kelly, and Dick Trabulsi.
