My colleagues, we have reached the moment in the frantic 104th Congress where we will begin consideration of product liability reform, the conceded centerpiece of the new majority's contract with corporate America. But we should carefully…

Mr. Conyers moves to recommit H.R. 988 back to the Committee on the Judiciary with instruction to report back forthwith with the following amendment: Strike section 2 of the bill, and insert the following: SEC. 2. AWARD OF COSTS AND…

in closing, the loser pays is a phrase that appeals to everyone who has heard it. It removes itself to anecdotes about court cases that appeared or produced an absurd or abusive outcome, but government by anecdote can produce disastrous…

I rise on this rule to point out with strong vehemence my opposition to this last minimum effort to completely undercut the jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary and allow the majority to offer an amendment to H.R. 1058 that would…

The fact of the matter is if the law can apply in a case being prosecuted civilly, it ought to apply. Treble damages under RICO is an incredibly important tool, without which we are going to be at a loss for a lot of violations, including…

If I could remind the gentleman, we have already read the statute on the floor. It includes as a predicate offense securities violations. It is in plain English, and it was there from the first day that RICO was enacted into law, having…

Mr. Chairman, about the gentleman's concern, does he know that alleged Mafia links in securities cases would not be prosecutable under RICO? Is that part of his intention in repealing RICO, as applies to securities?

Well, may I just respond to the gentleman? Could we inadvertently leave it out when there were no hearings on it? It was mentioned in the bill, but there were a lot of things mentioned in the bill. On this pretext, anything that was not…

30 years ago, Selma, AL captured the attention of people around the world. At a time when there were 6 African-American Members of Congress and thousands of disenfranchised people in this country, 500 peaceful marchers were brutally…

No, I did not mean to complicate the relationship of the defendant with his client. His recovery would be in a sense, even if it is hourly, which is frequently the case for defense counsel, it would be contingent on the number of hours…

I think we are finally getting to the bottom of this matter. We have had the gentleman from Virginia really make it clear what he is after. First of all, he does not want any plaintiff to ever bring a lawsuit that he does not get charged…

Let me ask the gentleman one thing. When was the last time the gentleman heard a corporation look on television and see an ad for a plaintiff's law firm saying, ``No payment if we don't win''? Has the gentleman ever heard of a corporation…

Does not the gentleman concede that this moves the measure out of the draconian nature of punishing people for bringing lawsuits to dealing with lawsuits that may in fact be frivolous, malicious, or fraudulent? Is that not a good thing?

Exactly. That is the redeeming part of the whole thing, as far as I am concerned, but, you know, we are in a situation of relative improvement. What we are trying to do now is a lot different from cutting out some of your clients in…

May I respond to my colleague on the Committee on the Judiciary by saying that there are relatively rare instances where a defense counsel is paid on a contingency basis except that the way that they are paid is contingent upon an outcome…

I would hope we all support the American rule rather than one side, but let me point out to my colleagues that the whole notion that there is some superior method enforcing settlement of cases as opposed to having them tried is one that I…

Well, there are contingent fees, but there are other ways that a defense counsel can be reimbursed as the gentleman knows. For example, when a case settles, there can be a bonus or some kind of contractual stipulation for increased…

the gentleman from Ohio's amendment presents a number of important and potentially troubling issues. Most significant, it avoids even the semblance of evenhandedness by only limiting the fees plaintiff's attorneys could receive. What about…

Why are you tightening the rope around the neck of a plaintiff, a working class plaintiff in the first place?

For us to suggest we do not have a remedy for frivolity that is discovered within the first 90 days is to misread seriously the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. We have such a rule. What I am saying to the gentleman is we do not need to…

I just wanted to join in the correction of my friend, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, because a zero recovery from the plaintiff raises no question whatsoever about frivolity, because the test is of the evidence, which you could lose by a…

You are tightening the tourniquet. You are making it tougher on people to bring lawsuits. You are making it impossible for an injured person without means or resources who may have an excellent lawsuit to bring them at all because we keep…

It just occurred to me as the gentleman asked what is the sweat if it is just redundant. We cannot make the rules for Federal court procedure in the United States redundant when we are now going outside of the Rules Enabling Act which has…

The base underlying the bill is worse than that English rule, because at least the English rule let people who had lawyers appointed be free of being assessed costs. This rule does not take that into consideration. I urge the Berman…

Then I take it that the gentleman from California agrees with me that a working person bringing a suit where he thought he had a 70-percent chance of recovery would be under the gun if he had to go into court with the assumption that if he…