Meet the Man Liberal Trial Lawyers Are Trying to Take Down in the GOP

Ryan Patrick, runs the group that's been the single biggest force behind Texas tort reform for 30 years. And right now, trial lawyer money is quietly flowing into Republican primaries to take him down. Ryan Patrick, CEO of Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR), joins Garrett to break down "nuclear verdicts," the medical billing fraud scheme inflating your insurance bill, and the shadowy Delaware-incorporated group of Republicans fighting his organization from the inside.

The former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas under President Trump, a former Harris County state district judge, and now the CEO of TL, Ryan walks through how a small number of Texas counties and aggressive "billboard lawyers" are driving up insurance costs for every Texan, why Texas now leads the nation in verdicts over $10 million, and why a group of Republicans is now taking trial lawyer money to fight tort reform from inside the party.

**Topics discussed:**
- The history of Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Texas's "judicial hellhole" era in the 1990s
- What a "nuclear verdict" actually is and why Texas now leads the country in them
- How medical billing fraud and "letter of protection" schemes inflate lawsuit payouts
- The hidden "lawsuit tax" — $3,000 to $4,200 a year added to Texas insurance premiums
- TLR's push to put medical billing benchmarks in front of juries
- The "RATLR's" — a Delaware-incorporated, trial-lawyer-funded group attacking TLR from inside the GOP
- Judicial Fairness PAC and the fight to elect conservative judges in Harris, Dallas, and other urban counties
- Third-party litigation funding, and concerns over foreign (including Chinese) money bankrolling Texas lawsuits
- Why Ryan Patrick believes the 2026 elections could decide the future of tort reform in Texas

**Guest:** Ryan Patrick, CEO of Texans for Lawsuit Reform (TLR). Find TLR at tortreform.com. 

**Sources:**
- *Texas Tribune* — Aug. 12, 2026 — [Trial lawyers, once a force for Democrats, reclaim political clout in Texas GOP's MAGA wing](https://www.texastribune.org/2026/08/12/texas-trial-lawyers-gop-texans-for-lawsuit-reform-tort-civil-justice/)
- *Dowd Bennett* — May 15, 2025 — [Texas codifies the Business Judgment Rule (SB 29)](https://www.dowdbennett.com/news/texas-codifies-the-business-judgment-rule/)
- *Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC* — [TLRPAC- and JFPAC-Supported Candidates Dominate in General Election Contests](https://tlrpac.org/press_release/tlrpac-and-jfpac-supported-candidates-dominate-in-general-election-contests/)

Chapters
0:00 Meet Ryan Patrick, TLR's CEO
0:53 What Texans for Lawsuit Reform Does
6:45 What Are "Nuclear Verdicts"
12:24 Inside the Medical Billing Fraud Scheme
23:00 TLR's Fix: Benchmarking Jury Bills
28:21 GOP Civil War: Meet the "Rattlers"
37:22 Winning Texas's Judicial Races
44:33 Foreign Money in Texas Lawsuits
49:11 Where to Find TLR

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