Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman. Mr. Chairman, in many cases a trial lawyer's main target is a national business, but if the only defendant in the case is an out-of- State business, the case can be heard in Federal court rather than in a local State court, which trial lawyers often prefer. By also suing a local defendant in addition to the national defendant, who are the true targets of the lawsuits, trial lawyers can keep their cases in the preferred State courts. Trial lawyers who sue innocent local people and small businesses simply to keep the lawsuits in their preferred State courts usually drop their cases against these innocent local parties but only after their cases are safely back in State courts and only after the innocent local parties have had to spend time and money in dealing with the lawsuits. That is not right. Trial lawyers shouldn't be able to subject innocent local people and small businesses to costly and time-consuming lawsuits just to rig the places in which their lawsuits will be heard. This unfairness led respected Federal appeals court Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to publicly support congressional action to change the standards for joinder to allow judges greater flexibility in making the right decisions on questions of removal to Federal court and to give Federal judges greater discretion to determine earlier in the case whether a local party joined to the lawsuit is there for a good reason or for fraudulent reasons. H.R.…”