Political Quotes

“I rise today to address the Class Action Fairness Act of 2003. This legislation first was introduced and reported by a Judiciary subcommittee 5 years ago, during the 105th Congress. It is time to enact this legislation into law. There is no need to recount the parade of horribles that makes the need for this legislation manifest. Suffice to say that even the liberal Washington Post has noted that "national class actions can be filed just about anywhere and are disproportionately brought in a handful of State courts whose judges get elected with lawyers' money." And as one study has noted, "[v]irtually every sector of the United States economy is on trial in Madison County [Illinois], Palm Beach County [Florida], and Jefferson County [Texas]." The problem has grown much worse in recent years. Over the course of the 1990s, class-action filings increased by over 1,300 percent. What this suggests is that class-action litigation has become unhinged from actual events. These lawsuits are not being filed because businesses are injuring consumers 13 times more frequently than they did at the beginning of the last decade. Rather, these numbers reflect a breakdown in the litigation system itself. That system no longer bars frivolous suits that are brought purely for attorneys' own gain.”