Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “I hope we could have avoided some of the class war rhetoric that we have heard in debating this legislation. The fact is…”

“I hope we could have avoided some of the class war rhetoric that we have heard in debating this legislation. The fact is that in many cases in Europe, for example, where they probably have the safest automobiles in the world, there is no provision for punitive damages over there. The fact is that the American automobile manufacturers could not have child safety seats for about 7 years after Europe had introduced them because of the concern for product liability suits over here. I suspect there are a number of young people who were killed in auto crashes before these child restraint seats were made available in the United States because of the fear of excessive litigation in this country versus Europe. The idea behind our system was to make the plaintiff whole. It was basically to provide that the plaintiff be made whole. That is whole system that we talk about. Joint liability was created as a risk distribution insurance mechanism to insure that valid claimants would receive at least some compensation. However, no insurance program, not any workers' compensation program in any State, provides benefits or coverage for noneconomic damages.”