Political Quotes

“I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, this amendment should be roundly opposed for the simple reason that not only does it not protect any victims, but it also victimizes innocent local parties in the types of cases covered by the amendment. The purpose of this bill is to allow judges greater discretion to free innocent local parties--that is, innocent people and innocent small businesses--from lawsuits when those innocent local parties are dragged into a case for no other reason than to further a trial lawyer's forum-shopping strategy. These innocent local parties have, at most, an attenuated connection to the claims by the trial lawyer against some national company a thousand miles away, and these innocent local parties shouldn't have to suffer the time, expense, and emotional drain of a lawsuit when the plaintiff cannot even come up with a plausible claim against it. The base bill protects those innocent local parties from being dragged into a lawsuit brought against some other party for no other reason than to keep the case in a State court the trial lawyer prefers. Now, enter this amendment, which denies the bill's protections to innocent local parties joined to a lawsuit simply because the legal allegations in the case fall into one arbitrary category rather than another. That is terribly unfair.…”