Tort reformer Ted Cruz once represented two tort plaintiffs defending $54M awards
GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz has backed limits on tort lawsuits, even though he once represented plaintiffs defending tort judgments against a nursing home and a group home for those with disabilities.
Cruz usually worked for corporate defendants at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, the law firm he joined after serving as the Texas solicitor general. But he was hired in two appeals on behalf of plaintiffs who were each initially awarded $54 million, the New York Times reports in an Editorial Observer column.
One plaintiff was the daughter of a woman in a nursing home who bled to death. The other was a mentally disabled man raped by an employee of a group home where he lived. Both cases settled for undisclosed amounts after Cruz was hired.
A lawyer who hired Cruz in one of the cases, Carl Bettinger, tells the Editorial Observer that Cruz’s argument before the New Mexico Supreme Court before settlement was “stunning in its persuasive power.” He said Cruz’s later work for tort reform “sure made me smile to myself.”
“If Ted doesn’t become president,” Bettinger told the newspaper, “he’d be the first one I’d call to defend a large-dollar verdict.”
