Melvin Watt: “It strikes me that given what has transpired since this bill was introduced, even if it was originally a good idea... it…”

“It strikes me that given what has transpired since this bill was introduced, even if it was originally a good idea... it seems to me that we have proven with the passage of time that it is now definitely a solution in search of a problem. The lawsuits have been dismissed. So, in effect, the system has worked exactly like we would like it to work. That is the way our system is set up. If an individual believes that he has a cause of action and they believe that they have been wronged... they have the right to file a lawsuit, go to court, and have that court make a determination on their lawsuit. And that is exactly what has happened. Now, quite often people make those judgments in different ways and you end up with lawsuits being filed that get dismissed. And that happens to probably well over 90 percent of the cases that get filed in court--they get dismissed before they come to trial. Does that mean that they are all frivolous? Well, some of them probably are frivolous.”