Howard Berman: “Personally I do not find it a bit offensive that the Congress chooses to federalize the whole question of the standards…”

“Personally I do not find it a bit offensive that the Congress chooses to federalize the whole question of the standards for product liability. I think a very good case can be made for giving the manufacturers uniform rules around the country, it makes sense to federalize it. I do not even quarrel with all of the features of this bill. A statute of repose, which tells a manufacturer there is a certain period of time after which that manufacturer has procured and sold the product, that will pass, and he will no longer be liable for things that go wrong with that product unless he intentionally misrepresented aspects of that product that he was selling. The Bryant amendment dealt with that slight change in the statute of repose. He was denied a chance to offer that amendment. I think that can make sense. And I think you can talk about punitive damages in the area of product liability.”