Loser pays - like probably every other attempt at tort reform - is meant to reduce frivolous litigation. ( much of that is settled out of court, usually driving up insurance costs and enriching attorneys )

The trial lawyers have a very good friend in the White House and among the Democratic Party in general. IMO it is one of the most fixable costs in our health care problem as malpractice insurance and medicine practiced to protect against liability claims are two very large costs. But the "fixers" of health care won't touch that one. The reasons are pretty obvious.

http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000065

The poster boy for the trial lawyers was the Dems vp nominee in 2004 - the honorable John Edwards. Imagine that.

>I am surprised to hear that the loser pays was not used in the States before, afaik in Argentina is a long practice (maybe beginning of last century), so much that my father (who was a lawyer and then a judge and the chief-justice (I think that is how is called, the president of the supreme court of several provinces)) told me that there was a lawyer that became filthy rich by exploiting a loop-hole, which then was closed, but too late for this guy) The loop-hole was that if the plaintiff did not had means to pay then the state would pay all his legal fees, which were at that time a percentage of the claim, so this very honest and hardworking lawyer recruited homeless people to make unfunded and millionaire claims against a random company (probably with the company's lawyer colluding with said lawyer), when it was found that there were no grounds for such a claim, the judge would make the homeless person responsible for the fees, and for he couldn't afford it, then the state would pay them for him. Easy money. I do not know about Texas law, but I would try to be certain that a loop-hole like this does not exist, just in case :)
>
>>Loser pays tort reform is the latest reform Texas has enacted to increase
>>http://www.wtaw.com/2011/05/31/perry-signs-tort-reform-bill/
>>
>>Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas state legislature want the rest of the country to hear this message loud and clear: The Lone Star State is open for business.
>>...
>>The Wall Street Journal editorialized, “This Texas upgrade will build on reforms in 2003 and 2005 that have vastly improved the legal climate in what has not coincidentally become the country’s best state for job creation. Texas rewrote everything from class-action certification to product liability” — and I would add the state’s medical-malpractice reforms to that list.
>>
>>http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268436/loser-pays-texas-small-business-wins-stephen-demaura
>>
>>No wonder the nation’s CEOs list Texas as the best state for business.
>>
>>http://chiefexecutive.net/best-worst-states-for-business
>>
>>"Texas GDP up 3.7% this year"
>>http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2011/05/31/texas-gdp-up-37-this-year-bbva.html