Hon. Michael G. Oxley: “I had a judge tell me one time that a poorly settled lawsuit is much better than a well-tried one. I found in my…”

“I had a judge tell me one time that a poorly settled lawsuit is much better than a well-tried one. I found in my experience that that was the case. Indeed this provision, if it were to be adopted, the Schumer amendment, would clearly discourage the parties from considering whether that case should be settled. It seems to me that our public policy ought to be encouraging settlements, not discouraging settlements. Judge Higginbotham, from the fifth circuit, testified on the Senate side as the chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Practice and Procedure. He testified that his advisory committee had studied this particular idea and had found that no change was needed to the basic approach to the issuance and the use of protective orders. In particular he stated that the results of these studies had shown that there was no need for these provisions and that they would create more burdensome and costly discovery as well as greater burdens on the court system. Mr. Chairman, this amendment makes a mockery of our system of justice by allowing third-party special interests unlimited access to private corporate documents.”