Political Quotes

“The so-called Class Action Fairness Act has nothing to do with fairness. This corporate defendants' ``Choice of Forum Act'' is a one-sided, unfair gift to the polluters, the Enrons, and the pharmaceutical companies that will hurt consumers by delaying their access to justice. It will indefinitely delay hearings for people who may be victims of defective products, fraud, discrimination, and environmental pollution. Mr. Chairman, this class action bill was a terrible bill when the House passed it in the last Congress; and fortunately, that bill died in the other body. Incredibly, H.R. 1115, this year's iteration of the bill, is even worse, as it now contains retroactivity language that will allow some of the worst corporate wrongdoers, companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Arthur Andersen, to remove cases filed against them in State court to the Federal courts where their attorneys can use the huge civil case backlogs in our Federal court system to just ``slow-walk'' the victims of their misconduct. The bill provides an automatic right of an interlocutory appeal of a class action certification, slow walk, and a stay on all discovery while the class certification appeal is pending. This unwise, ill-conceived intrusion on the jurisdiction of the State courts will destroy access to justice while overwhelmingly increasing the burdens on our Federal courts.”