Tim Scott: “Many plaintiffs bring the cases on a contingent fee. If you lose the case, if the lawyer brings such a case and does not…”

“Many plaintiffs bring the cases on a contingent fee. If you lose the case, if the lawyer brings such a case and does not win, whether it is frivolous or not, if he does not win he does not get paid a fee at all. That is certainly a sanction. If the case is, in fact, frivolous, the present law already provides significant sanctions. There have been recent improvements in that law, and we need to let them play out to make sure they work. There have been no complaints, or very few complaints, about the present law as it has been improved, and in terms of the loser pays, Mr. Chairman, that is a good sound bite but it is just not good sound policy. It will have the effect of denying the average citizen access to the courts. Our courts ought to be a place where citizens can have their rights vindicated and resolve those differences. If we have the loser pays, we are going to have a significant situation where the average citizen will not have access to the courts.”