Ed Markey: “this recommittal motion contains two of the worst elements of the legislation which is pending before the House right…”

“this recommittal motion contains two of the worst elements of the legislation which is pending before the House right now and seeks to correct those two portions of the legislation. The first part of the recommittal motion deals with the issue of the English rule versus the American rule. That is the question of whether or not a plaintiff, when they file a case and lose, should be subject to having to pay the legal bills of the prevailing side. The English rule is completely outside the traditions of American jurisprudence. What we seek to do in the recommittal motion is to insure that there is a correction made that does not in fact impose upon plaintiffs who happen to lose cases which they have brought against large financial or industrial institutions in this country the responsibility of shouldering the legal bills of those financial or industrial firms. The Manton amendment, which we just considered, dealt with this issue extensively in debate.”