Dan Burton: “Let me just make two comments. First of all, many of the States are working on similar legislation of this right now as…”

“Let me just make two comments. First of all, many of the States are working on similar legislation of this right now as far as State litigation is concerned. We all know that. I believe that what we do here today will serve as a model for many of those States, so this reaches beyond just Federal litigation in my view in the long run. In addition to that, I read the gentleman's amendment, and, while I think that is a step in the right direction, the problem I have with that is we still have some jurors and some judges that may rule against a legitimate case, and what the gentleman's amendment does is only deals where the plaintiff gets some kind of a settlement. If the plaintiff does not get any settlement, then he or she still pays 100 percent of the defense cost for the defendant, and in my view, as my colleagues know, that could work an undue hardship. My amendment, my amendment right now, says that they do have a 25-percent penalty, and, if it is truly a frivolous case, the judge can assess more than that, but it does leave some discretion with the court, and to me that makes some sense.”