Howard Berman: “Let us create a hypothetical here. Let us understand what we are talking about. A suit is brought in Federal court under…”

“Let us create a hypothetical here. Let us understand what we are talking about. A suit is brought in Federal court under the diversity statute by a plaintiff who is making $20,000 a year, based on the negligence of an out-of-state corporation and offers go back and forth. He decides the last offer is not acceptable. They go to a month-long trial. And the jury awards an amount to the plaintiff that is less than the defendant's last offer. In that situation, it is possible, under this statute, for the court to decide that the cost of that entire month-long trial and all the other costs of the 10 days prior to that trial would be shifted to the plaintiff and that that would be an enforceable judgment, that the defendant could than go and seek to execute through garnishment of wages, through attaching the car and executing on it, through doing all of the traditional devices that can be utilized to collect a sum owed. Is that not a fair statement?”