Cyrus Dugger

Montezuma’s Revenge

Montezuma’s revenge refers to the diarrhea that foreigners often get when traveling to Mexico. The name exists because this illness is seen as the revenge of the Aztec king against the European invaders who dethroned him. It speaks to the suffering that many foreigners go through when they become sick in Mexico, often from drinking water that they are not accustomed to. It also speaks to unintended consequences.

The phrase popped into my head after reading these interesting excerpts from a recent Business Week article "How Business Trounced The Trial Lawyers." An interesting point that the article touches upon, is that after lobbying to make access to the courts increasingly harder for consumers when attempting to sue corporations, corporations may have also unintentionally made it harder for corporations to sue each other over the “corporation only” disputes they have never attempted to limit in the same manner through tort "reform."

Of course, when plaintiffs' attorneys see a falloff in business, lawyers opposing them do, too, and in Texas both sides are feeling the pain. Surprisingly, even businesses may occasionally feel the sting of lawsuit reform. Plaintiffs' lawyers, closed out of their traditional pursuits, are working harder to drum up claims companies can bring against one another. Additionally, the conservative legal climate may be making it harder for companies that believe they have legitimate claims to get what they feel they're entitled to when they file a lawsuit. - How Business Trounced The Trial Lawyers (link)

….

Sitting in a conference room high over Houston's Galleria neighborhood, James L. Reed Jr. and two other attorneys from Looper, Reed & McGraw contemplate the new legal landscape. Looper Reed's 60 attorneys represent small and midsize businesses, so one would presume that their clients have only benefited from the new environment. But Reed notes that there has been a "ripple effect" from the changes that is affecting commercial cases, too. His colleagues J. Cary Gray and Jack Rains, both self-described conservative Republicans, agree.

"It's a hell of a lot harder for one of our clients when a contract gets breached to collect all of their damages," complains Gray, noting that conservative judges take a very narrow view of what kind of damages they will even allow a jury to consider. In general, Gray says, he thinks many Texas judges are "afraid of big verdicts coming out of their courtrooms," even in a dispute between businesses. Citing a group of rice producers he and Gray represent and the limits they may face on their claims, Reed notes: "They're starting to get educated about how much tort reform is too much tort reform." - How Business Trounced The Trial Lawyers
(link)

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Posted at 4:00 PM, Jan 04, 2007 in
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