William Tauzin: “The answer is it could, because under rule XI the fees can be imposed on the attorney. However, my problem with it is…”

“The answer is it could, because under rule XI the fees can be imposed on the attorney. However, my problem with it is bigger than that. The problems are the following: First, rule XI does not allow sanctions in discovery proceedings. In fact, you cannot have sanctions where discovery proceedings have been conducted without justifiable cause. Rule XI, for example, permits the withdrawal of your suit or voluntary dismissal of your suit in order to avoid fee shifting. Let's say you brought a suit against me you never should have brought. You have made me hire attorneys, you have kept my company in all kinds of legal trouble for a year or 2 years. Then it becomes clear that you should not have brought suit in the first place. The judge is about to impose sanctions on you, so you immediately withdraw the case. Under that scenario, under the Manton amendment, the judge could not impose sanctions, could not shift fees over to the party who should not have brought this suit. In short, while it is an improvement over the existing law, and I must commend my friend for doing a good job in offering a solution that is better than existing law, the provisions of our bill are much better, much better, and this amendment should be defeated.”