Political Quotes

“Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Chair, I agree with my friend from Florida; sexual assault cases should never be a part of forced arbitration, ever, under any circumstances. The problem is, when we are doing that and moving into this, we are also taking this huge swath of cases that don't qualify at the high end, don't have enough money for class action lawsuits, but yet are too big for small claims court. The reality of those situations in any court system across the country, is they are overworked, they are behind, and they are delayed. But, most importantly, probably, if you are dealing with a contractual lawsuit that doesn't have the ability to get treble or punitive damages, and it is a small enough claim like a refrigerator or a television, there is really no access because the cost of the lawyer will make it prohibitive to go to court. And the argument that this only allows choice doesn't really work because the same reason you write a contract at the beginning of a business relationship as opposed to when that relationship is dissolving, is because you want to put terms in place before problems arise. And the reason is when you go to arbitration in these types of cases, one side will be so disadvantaged by arbitration they would never agree to it. But probably the most egregious part of this bill is the fact that we are retroactively applying it to hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of existing contracts.…”