82R7287 DAK-F
By: Wentworth S.B. No. 1594
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to offers of settlement in civil cases.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 42.002(c), Civil Practice and Remedies
Code, is amended to read as follows:
(c) This chapter does not apply until a claimant or
defendant files a declaration that the settlement procedure allowed
by this chapter is available in the action. The [If there is more
than one defendant, the] settlement procedure allowed by this
chapter is available only in relation to the claimant or defendant
that filed the declaration and to the parties that make or receive
offers of settlement in relation to that claimant or defendant.
SECTION 2. Section 42.004, Civil Practice and Remedies
Code, is amended by amending Subsections (a) and (b) and adding
Subsection (h) to read as follows:
(a) If a settlement offer is made and rejected and the
judgment to be awarded by the trier of fact [rendered] will be
significantly less favorable to the rejecting party than was the
settlement offer, the offering party shall recover litigation costs
from the rejecting party.
(b) A judgment will be significantly less favorable to the
rejecting party than is the settlement offer if:
(1) the rejecting party is a claimant and the amount of
the judgment awarded by the trier of fact [award] will be less than
80 percent of the rejected offer; or
(2) the rejecting party is a defendant and the amount
of the judgment awarded by the trier of fact [award] will be more
than 120 percent of the rejected offer.
(h) For a claim in which there is a statutory cap on the
amount of damages that may be awarded against a defendant:
(1) a court may not consider that litigation costs
awarded under this chapter to a claimant are damages for purposes of
the statutory cap; and
(2) the statutory cap does not limit the recovery of
litigation costs awarded under this chapter, without regard to
whether the inclusion of those costs in the overall award to the
claimant results in payment to the claimant of an amount in excess
of the statutory cap.
SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies to any
settlement offer made in a civil cause of action on or after the
effective date of this Act, without regard to whether the cause of
action accrued before, on, or after that date.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2011.