Blake Farenthold: “This amendment continues to victimize innocent local parties just because they happen to be in an insurance case. The…”

“This amendment continues to victimize innocent local parties just because they happen to be in an insurance case. The underlying bill is designed to protect folks from being dragged into a lawsuit just to facilitate forum shopping by plaintiffs' attorneys. The purpose of this bill is to allow judges greater discretion to free these innocent local parties. They are the ones that are suffering as a result of this. This amendment denies the bill's protection to innocent local parties joined to a lawsuit simply because the legal allegations in the case fall into one arbitrary category rather than another, just like the previous amendment. It is terribly unfair. Innocent people are innocent people, and they should be protected from being dragged into a lawsuit regardless of the nature of the case. The rules we have developed in this great country to protect the innocent are rules of general application, such as the rules protecting people's rights to have their side of the story told and the rules protecting people from biased or inaccurate testimony. We should all be appalled by the suggestion that these general protections designed to protect innocent people from criminal liability should be suspended because the case is one of assault and battery or murder or somehow relates to insurance. It is the same kind of logic.…”