(The Center Square) – Boom Belt states in the south continue to grow, attracting businesses, including those joining Texas’ new stock exchange. At a recent Texas Stock Exchange event, Republican governors from Texas and Florida highlighted one reason for this: pro-growth policies, including tort reform and court restructuring. While Florida’s reforms are fairly new, they model tort reforms implemented in Texas beginning 30 years ago. Texas’ new business court is also a national model for other states to follow, Gov. Greg Abbott and others argue.
In Florida, after more than a dozen insurance companies went bankrupt or pulled out of the market, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature championed extensive tort reform. In 2023, HB 837, Civil Remedies, was enacted, implementing many changes. They include shortening the statute of limitations for negligence actions, modifying the negligence standard, making civil remedy and bad faith changes, adjusting attorney fees and denying coverage of attorney fees, among others.
Since then, one measurable outcome has been insurance companies reentering the market, property and casualty insurance costs dropping and greater competition, The Perryman Group argues. The Waco, Texas-based firm estimates that an average 14.5% savings in reduction of property and casualty insurance costs alone translates to an increase in Florida business activity of more than $4.2 billion in annual gross product. Increased business activity translates to an estimated annual tax revenue of approximately $206.6 million to the state and $155.3 million to local taxing entities, it says.
The Perryman Group also notes that frivolous lawsuits against property insurance companies dropped 25% in one year.
“Florida has become the clearest proof point in the country that legal reform delivers real results. With premiums coming down, insurers returning to the market, and billions in economic activity generated, the message is simple: protecting consumers starts with fixing a system that allowed lawsuit abuse to drive up costs for everyone,” Lauren Zelt, executive director, Protecting American Consumers Together, told The Center Square.
Due to tort reform reducing excessive litigation, insurers have less legal and claims costs, Zelt said. When these costs drop, the market stabilizes. When the market stabilizes, insurers can compete in a fairer legal system, she said.
While insurance costs and rates are dropping in Florida, they’re increasing in blue states. Los Angeles and New York City were ranked as the top two worst judicial hellholes in the U.S. last year, according to the American Tort Reform Foundation. Of the top eight judicial hellholes cited, six are run by Democrats.
Today, Texas remains the top state for doing business in the country but it was once considered a top judicial hellhole that businesses avoided. This changed in 1994, under former Gov. George W. Bush and Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock. They led a bipartisan effort to enact a series of reforms advanced by Texans for Lawsuit Reform. The first measures related to deceptive trade practices, judicial campaign finance reform and others. TLR efforts expanded, which resulted in Texas’ first sweeping tort reform measure in 2003, which passed with bipartisan support.
The 2003 reforms addressed issues related to “product liability, appeal bonds, Supreme Court jurisdiction, appellate court jurisdiction, class action attorney fees, proportionate responsibility, punitive damages, actual damages, judgment interest, offers of settlement, Good Samaritans, school employee liability, healthcare liability, migration of air particles, class action procedures, seat belt evidence, multidistrict litigation, lawsuits against architects and engineers and venue shopping,” according to TLR. Voters also passed a constitutional amendment to cap non-economic damages in lawsuits.
Previously, “Texas was known as one of the nation’s ‘judicial hellholes,’” the Texas Public Policy Foundation noted in a report published 10 years after reforms were in effect. Before tort reform, Texas’ “system of justice allowed for laws to be applied arbitrarily. Enforcement of personal property rights and contracts varied depending on which local court had the case. Furthermore, certain counties had bad reputations regardless of the court. Judicial outcomes often depended on which attorney was before which judge in which county. Equal enforcement of the state’s laws was simply not a certainty upon which a citizen could rely,” TPPF said.
By 2011, the Texas legislature continued to enact bipartisan reforms, including curtailing frivolous lawsuits and reforming the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. The association nearly went bankrupt because of “abusive lawsuits filed by storm-chasing lawyers after Hurricane Ike,” TLR explains. Over the years, additional reforms were enacted, including weather-related lawsuit reforms, preventing abuses in local government contingency fee contracting and enhancing the efficiency of Texas’ court system.
In 2023, another bipartisan effort in the Texas legislature passed: establishing a new business court and regulatory framework. In 2025, additional measures were enacted to make the court more effective. This resulted in major corporations redomiciling in Texas, including Coinbase, major exchanges like Texas’ new stock exchange, the New York Stock Exchange Texas and Nasdaq Texas, The Center Square reported. Most recently, ExxonMobil redomiciled in Texas specifically citing Texas’ business court.
“Since 2019, more than 250 companies have physically moved their headquarters to Texas because of our business-friendly approach to energy, tech, health care, and more. Now, they’re legally domiciling here because we have courts that move at the speed of business with business regulations to match,” TLR CEO Ryan Patrick told The Center Square.
“Policy decisions like these create a durable, predictable environment for businesses to succeed,” Abbott, who’s championed tort reform, said. Since he’s been in office, more than 325 corporate headquarters have relocated to Texas and 54 Fortune 500 companies are headquartered there.
