Tim Scott: “I just wanted to comment on some of the things we have heard. We have heard about this poker game people are going to…”

“I just wanted to comment on some of the things we have heard. We have heard about this poker game people are going to have to play in order to figure out whether to settle or not to settle. Mr. Chairman, some of these cases are very difficult to evaluate. They are impossible to judge by $1 or $2 or $50. Sometimes you do not know exactly what to settle for. Some people just want their day in court. Whatever happened to that? Mr. Chairman, we have heard a lot about what happens to people who are poor when they come to court. Let us talk about a middle-class person who happens to be just a regular homeowner, has a little money set aside for college education for the children, who has been ripped off in a real estate deal or been maimed in an automobile accident when they say they had the green light and the other side said they had the green light; your client knows that the light was green, but you do not know whether you can win that case or not when you discuss the case, whether to bring it with your lawyer, and he says, 'You have a 70 percent or 80 percent chance of winning, but there is a chance we might lose the case and you will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for the other side for their attorney's fees for having brought the case that you thought that you were in the right; you are going to lose your house, you are going to lose the money you have set aside for the college education for your children.”